Sex, Orgasm, and the Mind of Clear Light: The Sixty-Four Acts of Gay Male Love

by Jeffrey Hopkins, A-Mdo Dge-Dun-Chos-Phel

In this ground-breaking work, Tibetan Buddhist scholar Jeffrey Hopkins has adapted Tibetan philosopher Gedun Chopel's heterosexual sex manual Tibetan Arts of Love as a gay sex guide. Interweaving ecstatic poetry and prose, Hopkins shows how sexual passion can open the door to spiritual growth.

Hopkins argues that orgasm itself can bring lovers to a powerful level of consciousness. Beautifully written, the techniques show that pinching, scratching, union from the rear, switching roles, thrill cries, and oral sex all have an impact on erotic life. Hopkins concludes with four "ruminations" on the sex-friendly nature of Tibetan Buddhism.

Genres: Sexuality, Gay

122 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 1998

About the author

Paul Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D. (Buddhist Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1973; B.A. English Literature, Harvard University, 1963), served for a decade as the chief English-language interpreter for the Dalai Lama. A Buddhist scholar and the author of more than thirty-five books, he is Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, where he founded the largest academic program in Tibetan Buddhist studies in the West.

Reviews

[Mustafa Al-Laylah]

One of the best books on what is generally shunted about as "Gay Tantra". It actually is a homosexually centered translation of Gedun Chopel's take on the classical Indian Kama Sutra style of sex manuals. Hopkins, a Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia for the last three decades, shows great sympathy in his biographical accounts of the hardships of Chopel's life and translates the original author's text in a highly readable way.

Jeffrey's "ruminations" in the back of the book, though, were the real reason why I purchased it. Rather than being merely a translation of a heterosexual text, these essays provides an understanding of dharma and tantra through the exclusively queer eyes of a gay Buddhist scholar. This, for my money, propelled the book leagues from other such manuals like Anderson's "Tantra for Gay Men".

The only part of the book I wasn't that fond of were the photos. Don't get me wrong, they're hot, and I liked the fact that the couple who are miming suggestively for my eager eyes were of mixed race (Asian and African-Amerian), but the modern affectations normally associated with the gay male form still leaves me a little annoyed.

My suggestion: artsy looking daguerrotypes of asian men in period Tibetan garb in various states of undress and engagement - like a Tibetan Shunga!

Anyway, an excellent book throughout and well worth having on any gay man's shelf.