Conjuring the Buddha

When we read the tantras, they often strike us as merely magic. How did these strange texts, filled with demonic deities, become the foundation for the empowering rituals and sophisticated meditations so widely practiced across the Buddhist world? This book, with its profound analyses and precise translations, finally answers that question. -- Donald S. Lopez Jr., Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, University of Michigan Based on a somewhat random cache of largely tenth-century Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang, Jacob Dalton delivers to us a masterful new narrative of much of the history of Indo-Tibetan tantric Buddhism. This innovative history rests on the plastic and more human genre of local ritual manuals, rather than the formalized tantric scriptures. Dalton's lens of analysis allows us to see the creative shifts in ritual practice that unfolded over the centuries, from the chanting of spells to self-visualization, the inner experiences of sexual yoga, and beyond. Replete with full translations of key works, this book is highly recommended for university courses on Buddhist ritual and tantrism, not to mention lay students of Asian religion and yogic practitioners alike. -- Janet Gyatso, author of <i>Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet</i> This unique, approachable and well-organized book not only mines an extraordinary number of Dunhuang manuscripts, of which Dalton is one of the acknowledged experts, but also offers excellent examinations of the practices and controversies in the development of forms of Buddhist tantra in the eighth century. -- Ronald M. Davidson, author of <i>Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement</i> Dalton’s argument is supported by rigorous textual scholarship and keen attention to detail...I could see this book being assigned in a graduate seminar on research methods in manuscript studies or ritual studies beyond the context of tantric Buddhism, or in an advanced Tibetan language class where portions of this book could prove highly instructive. -- Jue Liang * Reading Religion * A major contribution to our understanding of Tibetan tantric Buddhist ritual texts as well as the history of the tradition in which they play an essential but still little-understood role. * Journal of Asian Studies *