Svaha

Svaha

Author: Charles de Lint

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2000-11-18

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 9780312876500

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

De Lint's classic novel of native magic in an American future is now back in print. Only Gahzee can save the downed Indian flyer, walking the line between the Dreamtime and the Realtime, bringing his people's ancient magic to bear on the poisoned world of tomorrow.


Powers of Protection

Powers of Protection

Author: Gergely Hidas

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-06-21

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 3110713365

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This sourcebook explores the most extensive tradition of Buddhist dhāraṇī literature and provides access to the earliest available materials for the first time: a unique palm-leaf bundle from the 12th–13th centuries and a paper manuscript of 1719 CE. The Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha collections have been present in South Asia, and especially in Nepal, for more than eight hundred years and served to supply protection, merit and auspiciousness for those who commissioned their compilation. For modern scholarship, these diverse compendiums are valuable sources of incantations and related texts, many of which survive in Sanskrit only in such manuscripts.


The Maha-Vairocana-Abhisambodhi Tantra

The Maha-Vairocana-Abhisambodhi Tantra

Author: Stephen Hodge

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-12-09

Total Pages: 586

ISBN-13: 1135796548

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first complete translation into English of this Tibetan text, together with the informative commentary by the 8th century master Buddhaguhya. This text is of seminal importance for the history of Buddhist Tantra, especially as very little has been published concerning the origins of Tantra in India.


The Vivāha, the Hindu Marriage Saṁskāras

The Vivāha, the Hindu Marriage Saṁskāras

Author: Bhaiyārām Śarmā

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9788120811324

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ceremonial rites and rituals occupy a place of utmost importance in the life of a devout Hindu. In fact, there are no vital actions- brith, initiation, marriage, death etc- which can be allowed to be performed without its appropriate rite or samskara. The number of samskaras has been fluctuating but was finally fixed at sixteen. Marriage is the most important and elaborate out of these sixteen samskaras. Manu enjoins that rituals should be performed in the case of virgin for legalizing the marriage, legitimatizing children and avoiding public scandal. The mantras used in the nuptial rites being in Sanskrit are beyond the comprehension of not only the average Hindu but even the common priests entrusted with the duty of conducting the rituals. To overcome this difficulty the present book was originally prepared in Hindu and is now translated into English with the mantras etc. Romanized for the benefit of those who do not have adequate knowledge of Hindi, for example especially those whose forefathers had migrated to remote countries during the last one hundred years or so.


Vajrayogini

Vajrayogini

Author: Elizabeth English

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013-02-08

Total Pages: 607

ISBN-13: 0861716574

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Vajrayogini is a tantric goddess from the highest class of Buddhist tantras who manifests the ultimate development of wisdom and compassion. Her practice is prevalent today among practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. This ground-breaking book delves into the origins of Vajrayogini, charting her evolution in India and examining her roots in the Cakrasamvara tantra and in Indian tradition relating to siva. The focus of this work is the Guhyasamayasadhanamala, a collection of forty-six sadhanas, or practice texts. Written on palm leaves in Sanskrit and preserved since the twelfth century, this diverse collection, composed by various authors, reveals a multitude of forms of the goddess, each of which is described and illustrated here. One of the sadhanas, the Vajravarahi Sadhana by Umapatideva, depicts Vajrayogini at the center of a mandala of thirty-seven different goddesses, and is here presented in full translation alongside a Sanskrit edition. Elizabeth English provides extensive explanation and annotation of this representative text. Sixteen pages of stunning color plates not only enhance the study but bring the goddess to life.


Tantric Art and Meditation

Tantric Art and Meditation

Author: Michael R. Saso

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 1990-01-01

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 9780824813635

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Tantric Art and Meditation: The Tendai Tradition describes the four basic meditations of Tantric Buddhism: the Eighteen-path Mandala, the Lotus-womb Mandala, the Vajra-thunder Mandala, and the Goma Rite of Fire. The book summarizes the teachings of Tendai Tantric Buddhism, as practiced on Mt. Hiei, Kyoto, by a Master of the Homan devotional (Bakhti) school, one of the major kinds of Tantric Meditation practiced in Japan. Profuse woodblock and line art illustrate the mudra, mantra, and mandala of Tantric practice.


Growing Up

Growing Up

Author: Niels Gutschow

Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 9783447057523

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The authors - an architectural historian (Niels Gutschow) and an indologist (Axel Michaels) - are presenting the second part of a trilogy of studies of life-cycle rituals in Nepal, carried out under the auspices of the Collaborative Research Centre "Dynamics of Ritual". The initiation of boys and girls of both Hindus and Buddhists of the ethnic community of Newars in the Kathmandu Valley are documented. The first part of the book presents elements of Newar rituals, the spatial background of Bhaktapur and the hierarchy of ritual specialists - illustrated by 21 maps. The second part documents with detailed descriptions the . rst feeding of solid food, birthday rituals, and pre-puberty rituals like the first shaving of the hair, the boy's initiation with the loincloth (in Buddhist and Hindu contexts), the girl's marriage with the bel fruit and the girl's seclusion. One girl's marriage (Ihi) and three boy's initiations (Kaytapuja) are documented on a DVD. The third part presents the textual tradition: local handbooks and manuals used by the Brahmin priest to guide the rituals. Two of these texts are edited and translated to demonstrate the function of such texts in a variety of contexts.


The Upanishads

The Upanishads

Author:

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2004-01-29

Total Pages: 451

ISBN-13: 0141938013

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An 'Upanisad' is a teaching session with a guru, and these thirteen texts, the 'Principal Upanisads', form a series of philosophical discourses between teacher and student that question the inner meaning of the world. Composed from around the eighth century BCE, the Upanisads have been central to the development of Hinduism, and explore the central doctrines of rebirth, karma, overcoming death, and achieving detachment, equilibrium and spiritual bliss. Speaking to the reader in direct, unadorned prose or lucid verse, they embody humanity's perennial search for truth and knowledge.