Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism (eBook)

Christian K. Wedemeyer is associate professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School and in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations. He is the translator and editor of Aryadeva's Lamp That Integrates the Practices: The Gradual Path of Vajrayana Buddhism According to the Esoteric Community Noble Tradition, and his research concerns the history and literature of Buddhism in Southern Asia and Tibet.

List of Figures and TablesPreface and AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Making Sense in and of the Human SciencesPart 1: Historiography1. OriginsUnderstanding Tantric Buddhism through its OriginsThe Quest for Origins as Method in the History of Religions2. Narrating Tantric BuddhismThe Poetics of HistoriographyThe Tropology of Esoteric BuddhismHistorical Narrative and Ideological Implication3. Going Native: Traditional Historiography of Esoteric BuddhismHistoriography and Cosmology in Exoteric BuddhismHistoriography and Cosmology in Esoteric BuddhismObservations on StructurePart 2: Interpretation4. The Semiology of TransgressionThe Literal and the Figurative in Tantric HermeneuticsConnotative Semiotics as Exegetical MethodConnotative Semiotics in Tantric RitualConnotative Semiotics in Tantric Scripture5. "The Practice" of Indian Esoteric BuddhismTerms of Art as an Interpretative ProblemInterpreting the Practice Observance I: Irony and InversionInterpreting the Practice Observance II: Prerequisites and Temporal FrameInterpreting the Practice Observance III: ?aiva Parallels6. Tantric Buddhist Transgression in ContextThe Social Location of Tantric Buddhism as an Interpretative ProblemContriving MarginalityThe Common Repertoire of Buddhist Professionals"Carnivalesque" or "Rituals of Rebellion"?But...Did They Really Do It?!Conclusion: No Two "Ways" About ItAppendix I: The Indrabhuti Story According to Pad ma dkar po (ca. 1575)Appendix II: Chapter Nine of the Buddhakapala Tantra, "The Practice" (Caryapatala)NotesBibliographyIndex