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Title: Kiss of the Yogini: "Tantric Sex" in Its South Asian Contexts by David Gordon White ISBN: 0-226-89483-5 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $43.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2 (4 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Such "scholarship" saddens
Comment: This book raises many questions: How do you interpret ancient texts? Are words to be taken literally in all contexts, or does one ask people who are within the tradition for the meanings associated with them? White chooses to ignore tradition to insist that his literal meaning of esoteric terms is the right although living Kaulas would find it wrong.
Unfortunatly, this book sinks to the same level as Kripal's book on Ramakrishna. There is nothing redeeming in this work.
Rating: 1
Summary: Orientalist view of Tantra
Comment: The scholarship of this book is pathetic. White insists that whether Tantric practitioners themselves accept his characterization of their tradition does not matter, and he is right in taking metaphors to be the literal truth when he chooses. His main point is that Tantra was essentially nothing but sex and the higher philosophical meanings were foisted on it at a much later date.
Not only is this thesis negated by the texts themselves, it misses the meaning of the larger Indic spiritual tradition of which Tantra forms a part.
Rating: 1
Summary: Slanted conclusions
Comment: The interpretation of the selective scriptural sources in this book and the conclusions the book reaches are strange and slanted. It seems to make the case that there is no valid spiritual dimension to Hindu/Buddhist Tantra at all. Limited and disappointing.
Instead read this ...
Tantra : Path of Ecstasy
by Ph.D. Georg Feuerstein
Review From Publishers Weekly
Feuerstein has attempted a daunting task, defining Tantric Yoga drawn from Hindu and not Tibetan Buddhist sources. To do this, he has assembled a wide-ranging compendium of Hindu, Tantric and Shaivite texts almost impossible to find in one place elsewhere. To plunge into this book is to find yourself rushing down the sacred River Ganges through the heart of India. Like a sophisticated travelogue, it brings into sharp focus the rich tapestry of the Indian ecstatic life and the exotic practices of Tantric Yoga that take place, metaphorically, on the banks of this Queen of rivers. The inner eye is challenged with mystical beasts bathing in the waters; holy men daubed in ashes undertaking bizarre and often previously never-before-seen Tantric rituals; the inner ear is filled with the rhythmic, pulsating chant of Om, and all its associated Sanskrit sounds; the senses are awash with meditative visions. It is a passage through Indian spiritual life that may be too sophisticated for the casual tourist, although for those who have passed this way before, it is a comprehensive and provocative commentary on the basic and advanced precepts of Tantric yoga. Written with literate modesty and erudition, this book is an invaluable resource.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Title: The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India by David Gordon White ISBN: 0226894991 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Roots of Tantra (Suny Series in Tantric Studies) by Katherine Anne Harper, Robert L. Brown ISBN: 0791453065 Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Tantra : Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion by Hugh B. Urban ISBN: 0520236564 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement by Ronald M. Davidson, Ron Davidson ISBN: 0231126190 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.50 |
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Title: Tantra in Practice by David Gordon White ISBN: 0691057796 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 15 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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