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Archive for November 2013

  1. Towards a Tantric bibliography

    A few people have asked me of late if I could provide a bibliography of key tantric texts and studies – no easy task, given the seemingly exponential growth of new translations and studies. Fortunately, I’ve just found a very comprehensive bibliography of contemporary tantric works over at Oxford Bibliographies. Compiled by Glen A Hayes, this is a really useful starting-point for anyone looking for key texts and themes. Whilst there are a few omissions, and the resources listed are definitely slanted towards users with access to academic journal repositories, it’s still a great resource.

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  2. Heart practice: On the Adoration of the Senses – I

    “Just as one who sees something out of the ordinary experiences a feeling of amazement, so the feeling of amazement in enjoying contact with the various manifestations of knowable reality is continually produced in this great yogin with the whole wheel of the senses increasingly revealed, motionless, disclosed, by virtue of penetrating into its most intimate nature, the compact union of ever-renewed consciousness and wonder, extreme, extraordinary.”
    Ksemaraja, commentary on Śivasutra, 1.12, quoted from Torella, 2012

    “All wisdoms have celebrated the instant, the wise man leaves aside memory; he has few projects, makes himself at home in the present, inhabits its differential.”
    Michel Serres, The Five Senses

    I’ve been taking this foray into “heart practice” slowly, beginning with a central theme in tantra practice – that of the goddess dwelling in the heart. I’m now going to progress things slightly, with a look at a practice I tend to refer to as the “adoration of the senses”. But first, some thoughts on the senses themselves. Continue reading »

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