Love and Liberation

Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-231-14769-9
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 456 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 625 g

Love and Liberation reads the autobiographical and biographical writings of one of the few Tibetan Buddhist women to record the story of her life. Sera Khandro Künzang Dekyong Chönyi Wangmo (also called Dewé Dorjé, 1892;1940) was extraordinary not only for achieving religious mastery as a Tibetan Buddhist visionary and guru to many lamas, monastics, and laity in the Golok region of eastern Tibet, but also for her candor. This book listens to Sera Khandro's conversations with land deities, dakinis, bodhisattvas, lamas, and fellow religious community members whose voices interweave with her own to narrate what is a story of both love between Sera Khandro and her guru, Drimé Özer, and spiritual liberation.

Sarah H. Jacoby's analysis focuses on the status of the female body in Sera Khandro's texts, the virtue of celibacy versus the expediency of sexuality for religious purposes, and the difference between profane lust and sacred love between male and female tantric partners. Her findings add new dimensions to our understanding of Tibetan Buddhist consort practices, complicating standard scriptural presentations of male subject and female aide. Sera Khandro depicts herself and Drimé Özer as inseparable embodiments of insight and method that together form the Vajrayana Buddhist vision of complete buddhahood. By advancing this complementary sacred partnership, Sera Khandro carved a place for herself as a female virtuoso in the male-dominated sphere of early twentieth-century Tibetan religion.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jacoby, Sarah H.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Feministische Theologie, Gender Studies
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Buddhismus Tibetischer Buddhismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of IllustrationsPreface and AcknowledgmentsTechnical Note on Tibetan and Sanskrit WordsAbbreviationsChronologyMapsIntroduction1. The Life and Times of Sera Khandro2. A Guest in the Sacred Land of Golok3. Dakini Dialogues4. Sacred Sexuality5. Love Between Method and InsightEpilogue: Love After DeathSpelling of Key Tibetan Names and TermsNotesBibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Sarah H. Jacoby is assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University. She is the coauthor of Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience and coeditor of Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and Their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas.