Sri Cakrasamara: A Buddhist Tantra

Description

This book contains Tibetan Texts on the Cakrasamvara which were the first Buddhist Tantric treatises to be translated or summarised from Tibetan into English Since its appearance in 1919, it has dominated the Study of Buddhist tantras in particular, and of Tantric thought in general. It was translated by Kazi Dawa-samdup with a foreword by the leading Authority of Tantrism Arthur Avalon. It was been out of print since half a century. The present reprint, with a preface by Lokesh Chandra, fills up a long-felt lacuna. The Cakrasamvara belongs to the highly developed division of anuttara-yoga tantras. It reveals the steps of Abhisam-bodhi wherein the three sunyas dissolve into one another. As the incomparable (anuttara) mantra path it embodies the system of highest Philosophical thought of the Tantric tradition. Its Mandala is one of the richest and most complex, with syncretistic tendencies of incorporating deities of the Hindu Pantheon. The book deals with the philosophy, ritual, rights of Empowerment (abhiseka), sadhana, and mandala of Samvara. The present work will be of use to the historian, philosopher, Buddhologist, art-historian, Indologist as well as enlighten. the General reader who wants to understand the mystical realisation of the mandala, and the incessant process of emanation and re-absorption of mani-festations into the meditative universes.