Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism

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 Tables Preface and Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Making Sense in and of the Human Sciences Part 1: Historiography 1. Origins Understanding Tantric Buddhism through its Origins The Quest for Origins as Method in the History of Religions 2. Narrating Tantric Buddhism The Poetics of Historiography The Tropology of Esoteric Buddhism Historical Narrative and Ideological Implication 3. Going Native: Traditional Historiography of Esoteric Buddhism Historiography and Cosmology in Exoteric Buddhism Historiography and Cosmology in Esoteric Buddhism Observations on Structure Part 2: Interpretation 4. The Semiology of Transgression The Literal and the Figurative in Tantric Hermeneutics Connotative Semiotics as Exegetical Method Connotative Semiotics in Tantric Ritual Connotative Semiotics in Tantric Scripture 5. "The Practice" of Indian Esoteric Buddhism Terms of Art as an Interpretative Problem Interpreting the Practice Observance I: Irony and Inversion Interpreting the Practice Observance II: Prerequisites and Temporal Frame Interpreting the Practice Observance III: ?aiva Parallels 6. Tantric Buddhist Transgression in Context The Social Location of Tantric Buddhism as an Interpretative Problem Contriving Marginality The Common Repertoire of Buddhist Professionals "Carnivalesque" or "Rituals of Rebellion"? But...Did They Really Do It?! Conclusion: No Two "Ways" About It Appendix I: The Indrabhuti Story According to Pad ma dkar po (ca. 1575) Appendix II: Chapter Nine of the Buddhakapala Tantra, "The Practice" (Caryapatala) Notes Bibliography Index

Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism is a major contribution to our understanding of Indian esoteric (or Tantric) Buddhism. Christian K. Wedemeyer writes with verve, humor, and-most crucially-remarkable clarity, managing to explain difficult texts and ideas with great lucidity. -- Roger R. Jackson, Carleton College An important new work in Buddhology Choice Highly Recommended. -- David Templeman South Asia Wedemeyer not only provides an advanced introduction, but also makes the reader question the assumptions (and almost everyone has assumptions about Tantra!) they bring to and expect of the study of Tantric Buddhism. -- Justin Thomas McDaniel Religious Studies Review A clear work that engages a fresh methodology in order to articulate a new theory of Buddhist antinomianism, offering thereby a novel way to 'make sense' of tantric Buddhism. Journal of Religion [An] important and useful contribution to the study of Tantric Buddhism in India. -- Sumit Guha H-Asia