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Westerners wanting to know about tantra—particularly the Buddhist tantra of Tibet—often find only speculation and fancy. Tibet has been shrouded in mystery, and "tantra" has been called upon to name every kind of esoteric fantasy. In The Dawn of Tantra the reader meets a Tibetan meditation master and a Western scholar, each of whose grasp of Buddhist tantra is real and unquestionable. This collaboration is both true to the intent of the ancient Tibetan teachings and relevant to contemporary Western life.

Here is a timeless collection of traditional stories that recount the personal spiritual journeys and true acts of selflessness by saints from various religious traditions indigenous to India, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Sufism. The authors present a diverse selection of these inspirational tales—about both men and women saints, from a variety of time periods, and from all over India—and make them relevant for a modern audience. The stories reveal that, despite their perceived differences, the same spiritual principles underlie all the great religious traditions.

Although Tibetan Buddhism continues to grow in popularity, the crucial relationship between teacher and student remains largely misunderstood. Dangerous Friend offers an in-depth exploration of this mysterious and complex bond, a relationship of paramount importance in Tibetan Buddhist practice. According to Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the student must have complete trust in the teacher (the "dangerous friend") if he or she is to achieve any understanding. It is the teacher''s responsibility to uphold the integrity of the tradition, the basis of which is compassion for all beings, by transmitting it properly to an appropriate student. Likewise, it is the student''s responsibility to meet the challenge of carrying on the lineage of teachings. By entering such a relationship, both teacher and student accept the burden of protecting those teachings by understanding them completely and correctly, by practicing them fully and faultlessly, and by transmitting them without omission. Dangerous Friend includes discussions of the following topics:    •  Meeting and recognizing an appropriate teacher.    •  Understanding the gravity of entering the teacher-student relationship.    •  Shifting one''s approach from spiritual materialism to genuine Buddhist practice.    •  Accepting the challenge of being truly kind, honest, and courageous.

The Persian Sufi poet Hafiz (1326–1390) is a towering figure in Islamic literature—and in spiritual attainment as well. Known for his profound mystical wisdom combined with a sublime sensuousness, Hafiz was the supreme master of a poetic form known as the ghazal (pronounced "guzzle"), an ode or song consisting of rhymed couplets celebrating divine love. In this selection of his poems, wine and the intoxication it brings are the image that expresses this love in all its joyful abandon, painful longing, bewilderment, and surrender. Through ninety-five free-verse renditions, we gain entry into the mystical world of Hafiz''s Winehouse, with its happy minstrels, its bewitching Winebringer, and its companions in drunken longing whose hearts cry out, "More wine!" Thomas Rain Crowe brings a new dimension to our growing appreciation of Hafiz and his wise drunkard''s advice to the seekers of God: In this world of illusion, take nothing other than this cup of wine; In this playhouse, don''t play any games but love.

The Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice known as Dzogchen (pronounced ZOG-chen) is a practical method for accessing the pristine, clear awareness that lies beneath the chatter and confusion of our daily thoughts. The Dzogchen Primer provides the keys for understanding Dzogchen and putting it into practice. Marcia Schmidt, a long-time Buddhist practitioner, has gathered here the most accessible, down-to-earth writings published on this subject and has organized them into a study guide for the serious beginner on the Buddhist path. The collection includes writings from such well-known and venerable masters as Milarepa, Padmasambhava, Shantideva, Chögyam Trungpa, and Tulku Urgyen. The concept of Dzogchen is said to lie beyond the confines of our beliefs, our intellectual constructs, our ordinary understanding. A Dzogchen master writes, "We need to dismantle our fixation on the permanence of what we experience. A normal person clings to his experiences as being ''real,'' concrete, and permanent. But if we look closely at what happens, experience is simply experience, and it is not made out of anything. It has no form, no sound, no color, no taste, no texture; it is simply empty cognizance." The Dzogchen Primer includes an informative editor''s preface as well as two forewords by prominent Tibetan masters that provide fundamental background information that will be helpful to readers new to this subject. The book also includes short, descriptive guiding notes intended to assist both independent students and teachers leading workshops.

With deep understanding and practical wisdom, Linda Leonard writes about the longing for a true wedding, one that unites two beings in a sacred search for meaning in life. Exploring dreams, personal experiences, myths and fairy tales, and themes from films and literature, the author uncovers the inner obstacles to love and creativity as experienced by both men and women.

Zen Letters presents the teachings of the great Chinese master Yuanwu (1063-1135) in direct person-to-person lessons, intimately revealing the inner workings of the psychology of enlightenment. These teachings are drawn from letters written by Yuanwu to various fellow teachers, disciples, and lay students-to women as well as men, to people with families and worldly careers as well as monks and nuns, to advanced adepts as well as beginning students. A key figure of Zen history, Yuanwu is best known as the author of The Blue Cliff Record. His letters, here in English for the first time, are among the treasures of Zen literature.

This important book brings together three long-lost texts, the earliest known writings on Zen.    •  Records of the Teachers and Students of the Lanka presents a complete set of biographies of the Zen patriarchs.    •  Bodhidharma''s Treatise on Contemplating Mind— written in the form of a dialogue between the first Zen patriarch, Bodhidharma, and his successor, Huke—views all the various practices of the Bodhisattva path from the perspective of cultivating mind.    •  Treatise on Sudden Enlightenment presents a series of questions and answers illuminating the true nature of "sudden enlightenment" as pure, undifferentiated mind. Dating from the first half of the eighth century, and only recently rediscovered in Tun Huang, China, these books offer the best information currently available on the early meditation techniques of the "northern school" of Zen Buddhism.

The philosophical, religious, and sociopolitical teachings of Confucianism have played a central role in East Asian culture for many centuries. This book presents a selection of passages from leading Chinese thinkers of the later Ming dynasty (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries), a peak period of Confucian creativity influenced by Buddhism and Taoism. Chosen for their practical interest and universal appeal, the passages are concerned with how to develop the personality, conduct social relations, and order society. In contrast to the common misconception of Confucianism as a formalistic ideology linked to authoritarian political regimes, these passages emphasize the cultivation of spiritual qualities as a means of operating harmoniously and successfully in the world.

The inner world of the imagination, with its own unique events and cast of characters, is active in most people, but many lose touch with it in their absorption with external life. Pieter Middlekoop shows how this dreamlike inner world can be entered deliberately while awake in order to gain self-knowledge and resolve conflicts. The book presents accounts of several people who entered the imaginal world by means of a technique called Imagination Therapy, which Middlekoop developed as a variation of C. G. Jung''s Active Imagination. In a series of "imaginations," they encounter their joys and sorrows, their anxieties, their problems with relationships—and also the keys to solving their difficulties. During the course of therapy it becomes clear that there is an active center within the personality that communicates to the conscious self in the symbolic language of imagery. Often personified in fantasies and dreams as the archetypal Wise Old Man, this inner source of wisdom guides the individual to healing and wholeness.

Zen experience defies all thinking and linguistic description and simply affirms what is evidently real: "The ordinary way—that precisely is the Way." After questioning the nature of reality, the Zen student discovers that what remains is what is. Although it seems that Zen would not lend itself to philosophical discussion, that all conceptualization would dissolve in light of this empiricism, in this volume, the author demonstrates that the "silence" of Zen is in fact pregnant with words. A variety of topics are discussed: the experience of satori, ego and egolessness, Zen sense and nonsense, koan practice, the influence of Zen on Japanese painting and calligraphy and much more.

Hasidism—a mystical branch of Judaism that is today the object of renewed interest—traditionally has as its leaders well-trained masters whose way of counseling their followers may be of interest to those in other helping disciplines. Sparks of Light examines the history and techniques of their advising people on the problems of everyday life—health, finances, family—as well as more spiritual concerns. Schachter and Hoffman take a close look at the techniques of the Hasidic masters—dream interpretation, shock, problem solving, and the prescription of spiritual exercises to unlock the door of the mind. They also focus on such intriguing topics as how Hasidic masters are trained, the range of difficulties for which struggling Jews seek their help, the intuitive methods of counseling that are used, and the kinds of mystical and practical advice offered in response to life''s challenges. This book—based on original translations of Hasidic tales and writings, many never before translated—will appeal to those in the helping profession, as well as readers of Jewish history.

This is the story of a determined woman who overcame great obstacles in order to achieve religious freedom. Born in eastern Tibet, Jamyang Sakya married into the powerful Sakya family, spiritual advisers of Kublai Khan and for years rulers of much of Central Asia. Her engaging personal story evokes a rich vision of Tibet''s traditional culture, customs, and religious practices. Jamyang Sakya tells of being the only girls in a monastic private school, of dreams and divinations interpreted by high lamas, of long pilgrimages to sacred Buddhist sites, and of her life as a high lady of Sakya. Her narrative reveals a multifaceted picture, from the intricacies of managing a palace household to the political takeover by the Chinese Communists, who destroyed much of Tibet''s religious heritage. It climaxes with the Sakya family''s harrowing walk through the Himalayas to freedom, during which they were hotly pursued by the Chinese. After a year in India, they immigrated to the United States, one of the first Tibetan families to do so.

The story of the mother-and-daughter goddesses Demeter and Persephone has seized the imagination of people in every age, from ancient times to the present. Considered today by many to be the archetypal myth for women, it touches on timeless themes in every life, such as the male-female relationship, love between women, initiations into puberty and old age, the mother-daughter bond, death, and ecological renewal. Christine Downing has combined essays, prose, poetry, and even performance art with her own insightful commentary to shed new light on the myth''s ancient meanings and to offer new insights in its implications for contemporary men and women.

Living Myth explores the dilemma of how to live life creatively at a time when the dominant myths of our culture are losing their power to give meaning to our lives. Using C. G. Jung''s idea of discovering a "personal myth," D. Stephenson Bond reflects on the psychology of mythic imagination, as a force in both culture and individual life. He argues that meaning is experienced subjectively through the stirring of imagination and fantasy in the individual, which touches the larger impersonal, archetypal patterns. The book offers hopeful insights into the possibilities of cultural renewal and individual meaning through the restoration of the imagination.

An understanding of the symbolism of the child in dreams can help us make contact with our own inner child—both the child we once were and the spontaneous, childlike side of our nature. Using examples of dreamwork from her analytical practice as well as themes from art, children''s literature, and folklore, Dr. Asper shows how the motif of the child may point to:    •  Important information about forgotten experiences of the past    •  New and future possibilities in our lives, especially during depression or transitional periods such as midlife    •  Our capacity for play, creativity, and joy    •  A renewal of spiritual life and the rediscovery of a lost childlike faith    •  A way to hear the psychological wounds of childhood and embrace the future more freely and innocently

This comparative study of the basic concepts of Freud and Jung is designed to give a comprehensive understanding of Jung''s work. The author traces the development of Jung from his initial fascination with Freud''s ideas to his gradual liberation from these powerful concepts and the final breakthrough into his own unique theories of man and the cosmos. Jung''s fundamental view—that the psyche is a totality of conscious and unconscious elements that seeks to realize itself—stands in sharp contrast to Freud''s early view of the psyche as primarily the effect of prior causes. Hence Freud tends to stress the pathological, whereas Jung looks to the creative and self-transcending aspects of human nature. The final section of the book describes the development of Jung''s ideas after the death of Freud, particularly his concept of the archetypes.

Written by the founder of Japanese Zen, Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), the Genjokoan is often considered to be the key text within Dogen''s masterwork, Shobogenzo. The Genjokoan addresses in terse and poetic language many of the perennial concerns of Zen, focusing particularly on the relationship between practice and realization.

Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Athena—do the gods and goddesses of Greece have anything to say to us that we haven''t already heard? In this book, based on a series of his lectures, the eminent Jungian analyst and writer Edward F. Edinger revisits all the major figures, myths, oracles, and legends of the ancient Greek religion to discover what they can still reveal—representing, as they do, one of the religious and mythic foundations of Western culture. Building on C. G. Jung''s assertion that mythology is an expression of the deepest layers of mind and soul, Dr. Edinger follows the mythic images into their persistent manifestations in literature and on into our modern lives. He finds that the gods indeed continue to speak as we grow in our capacity to listen and that the myths express the inner energies within all of us as much as ever. Heracles is eternally performing his labors, Perseus is still confronting Medusa, Theseus is forever stalking the Minotaur, and Persephone is still being carried off to life in a new realm.

This is the first English translation of the works of Candragomin—a seventh-century Indian philosopher and poet—which have been highly influential in the practice of Buddhism over the past twelve centuries. The book provides an excellent introduction to Mahayana, the "middle way" of the Buddhist path. It will appeal to anyone interested in Eastern Religion. Candragomin is regarded in the Indo-Tibetan tradition as an exemplar of the bodhisattva ideal. Difficult Beginnings presents three of the most important works. "Candragomin''s Resolve" is a short verse aspiration. "Twenty Verses on the Bodhisattva Vow" is a basis for exposition of the bodhisattva vow. "Praise in Confession" recounts the problems that Candragomin encountered in his spiritual practice. Dr. Tatz provides an excellent introduction to the theory and practice of the bodhisattva path, the ideal of attaining buddhahood—awakening—as well as the commitment to teach and guide others on this path. Also included is a fascinating account of Candragomin''s life, and lengthy commentary on the three works presented here.

Completing Distinctions develops a new way of thinking about the connection between problems and solutions for family and systems therapists. The author suggests that addiction and other social and ecological dilemmas stem from the belief that distinctions such as hate and love, sickness and health, or problem and solution are irreconcilable oppositions. Flemons shows how much separations can be completed so that genuine healing can occur in individuals, families, organizations, and ecologies. Written in a playful style, the book includes short client-therapist dialogues that illustrate the author''s approach.

A Buddha from Korea is intended to open a window on Zen Buddhism in old Korea. The book centers on a translation of teachings of the great fourteenth-century Korean Zen adept known as T''aego, who was the leading representative of Zen in his own time and place. This is an account of Zen Buddhism direct from an authentic source.

In 1968—a time when young Americans were intensely questioning the values of their society—Krishnamurti gave a series of talks to college students in the United States and Puerto Rico, exploring the true meaning of freedom and rebellion. Collected in this book, these lectures are perhaps even more compelling today, when both adults and young people are searching for the key to genuine change in our world.

The Tibetan Books of the Dead are a diverse collection of Buddhist scriptures that yield valuable insight into the psychology of death and dying and suggest the importance of meditative practice and knowledge as tools for self-understanding. This in-depth study of this rich body of Buddhist literature details the Tibetan Buddhist belief in the bardos, of intermediate states, and serves as an illuminating companion volume to The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Using original texts from both the Buddhist and pre-Buddhist Tibetan religious traditions, this book presents a detailed portrayal of the teachings and the iconography that play a major role in the Tibetan understanding of death and dying. The peaceful and wrathful deities, the mandala principle, the five Buddha families, and the six realms of experience are among the doctrines examined in this volume. A psychological commentary and the illustrations and diagrams in the book illuminate the Tibetan path from death, through the after-death state, to transformation and rebirth. A comparison with Western investigations of consciousness, death, and dying, as well as views of death in India, Egypt, and other ancient cultures, enables the reader to see how the Tibetan Buddhist perspective on death relates to the spiritual and psychological beliefs of other societies.

What is a man? The model offered by family and culture too often leaves men with a feeling of "not measuring up." The result can be a host of psychological problems that become roadblocks on the path to the state of maturity and wholeness that C. G. Jung called individuation. Warren Steinberg sees these perils on the path as opportunities to go beneath conventional models and to gain a deep understanding of masculinity—one that includes traditional masculine qualities along with recognition and acceptance of the anima, or a man''s inner feminine. Using dreams, myths, and the experiences of actual men, he demonstrates how this inner balance can be the key to establishing a free and strong masculinity.

The Karmapa is the spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The present Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, is the sixteenth of the line which began with Dusum Khyenpa, the first Karmapa, in the twelfth century. Karma Thinley presents the biographies of all the Karmapas, based on his translations from numerous Tibetan sources. These biographies are not only histories of the training and teaching of these great teachers; they are also inspirational texts used to cultivate devotion in the practitioner. Accompanying the text are sixteen line drawings, based on the thangka paintings of the Karmapas at Rumtek monastery, the seat of the present Karmapa.

By the time you finish this book, the term "inanimate object" will no longer have a place in your vocabulary, for Shaun McNiff will awaken you to the wondrous energies streaming out of familiar things and bringing a sense of magic into everyday life. Join the author as he discovers the autonomous spirits of a silver Mercedes convertible, a mysterious cigarette burn on the dining room table, and the scary shadow of a tree outside a child''s room. Contemplate with him the bleakness of a hotel conference room and the crucifix that hung over his childhood bed. Let him lead you on a field trip to the "unholy lands" of the shopping mall and faculty meeting, to the familiar spirits of his seaside New England homes, to the realm of dream, reverie, and memory, as he demonstrates how to connect with the life-giving energies of images and things, places and people. These are the earth angels—spirits of everyday life that call for the return of our lost soul to the world. Unlike the images of winged beings that now pervade popular culture, the earth angels also include the soul''s unattractive messengers, whose mission may require offense, pain, or fear as a preparation for change and renewal. Does a Styrofoam cup have soul? McNiff says yes, for the most debased things show us that the presence of the divine depends upon the quality of attention that we bring to our experiences.

When is a relationship too close, and when is it not close enough? How intimate can or should be the relationship between therapist and client, doctor and patient, supervisor and trainee? These questions of pressing concern—especially where power imbalances and ethical issues complicate relationships—are addressed by Joseph L. Henderson, June Singer, Peter Rutter, Montague Ullman, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Harry A. Wilmer, and eight other writers. Includes a foreword by Maya Angelou.

The two-thousand-year-old discipline of traditional Chinese medicine has much to offer Western readers who have an interest in the healing arts. The authors, both professors at Shanghai Medical University, explain the fundamental concepts of Chinese medicine, how and why it works, and its various therapeutic methods. This comprehensive survey includes all the essentials: a brief history, the concepts of yin and yang and the five elements, the internal organs, the relationship between human beings and nature, the causes of disease, common diagnostic methods, and the principles of the treatment, including traditional herbs, acupuncture and moxibustion, tui-na massage therapy, and qigong breath therapy.