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Meeting the Buddhas: A Guide to Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Tantric Deities
A vivid and inspiring journey to the heart of the rich and magical realm of Buddhist visualisation and devotional practices. In this informed account we are introduced to the main Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Tantric deities we are likely to meet in that miraculous realm. A unique resource.
376 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 19, 2012
This is a book to read and reread; beautifully written and for me it was quite inspirational. Even for those not interested in Buddhism it is a very good read.
December 15, 2019
This is #2 of 6 books I chose from the library, to acquaint myself with my neighbors, that I found especially helpful.
((I was provided with access to a library as part of spending this winter in close proximity to a cultural center. I have been involved in some way with Buddhism for my entire adult life, but this tradition is the least familiar to me, and for good reason. Imagine that once upon a time there were seven great libraries, and all but one of them was burned down. So this tradition also protects the thoughts and scholarship of entire cultures, many vanished, while at the same time provides a long continuous record of striving to move into the future by acquiring knowledge and living a principled life. The result of this reading list has been to discover uncanny similarities in such colorful difference, which has brought me closer to the philosophy of non-duality that has meant so much to my education. I am sharing a list that I can recommend, this does not make an expert in the slightest, but I can promise these are rich and better distillations than many I have scanned.))
Summary of the subtitle: Buddhas are awakened teachers from any age or place, past or future. Bodhisattvas are like saints, beings who have committed themselves to awakening, as well as the future manifestation of a student. Tantric Deities are personal focal figures used in the study of magic.
As a young person my mind was opened to a sense that the world was much larger than my society let on, by discovering the ritual iconographic painting still produced in the Himalayas, called Thangka. There was an increasing awareness of this art, because the indigenous culture that developed the art form was in an endangered state, and at the time was a refugee crisis that captured public awareness. Of course there have been other crises since then, and we are promised only more. The result of the awareness of another culture's plight was curiosity and empathy, and this produced an increase in translation activity, which brought new knowledge into the reach of an English speaking audience. It is a curious twist of conflict, that whomever is most harmed by our negative qualities, somehow manages to inject some of their own culture right back into our lives, by the action of our positive qualities. This simple logic would suggest that if an isolationist power, such as a racist institution, wishes to avoid increasing the popularity and familiarity of a chosen enemy, it should avoid engaging in conflict with them! Alas, common sense is not so common, and in that case, thank goodness.
This book is a general walk through some of the key transcendental hero deities that are so unique to the tradition of tantra and frequently appear as the central figures of the paintings. Their proportions and attributes specifically identify them, in an unbroken tradition of anthopomorphics that extends to the neolithic. With these deities, teachers and spirits, the identity usually correlates to a body of literature and visualizations, as well as embodying conceptual magic and ethical principles. These visualizations are usually quite spectacular, completely psychedelic journeys through color, taste, smell and sound. The student often makes a special connection to one of these figures, either through a dream, or choice, or assignment, and so will have a personal thangka subject for their own practice. In turn, this figure belongs to one of several 'families' so that one's temperament can be matched to an entire pantheon specific to a path most useful for their growth. Sometimes the figure an adaptation of something that had existed before, more often is is a completely new creation or has only surface resemblances, as with many demonic and wrathful entities which have exhibited the capacity for becoming enlightened, and are revered for this. It is becoming well known that Heracles, or Samson, is one example of this adoption, known all the way east as Vajrapani, the lightning king, for he is unmistakably present in the earliest known Buddhist art excavated in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If you were to see a thangka of Vajrapani, you wouldn't recognize him until you looked closely and noticed small details, however transformed... in the thangkas he has been given dark skin, and his club is reduced to a small lightning symbol, the trademark lion skin now tied around his waist, and his sacred knot, ancient western symbol of love, marriage and loyalty, is a simple cord held in his hand, echoed in a languid snake wrapped around his neck. Obviously he does not have three eyes in the west nor is presented surrounded by fire, nevertheless, the adoption is clearly recorded each step of the way. Further, in the dawn of literary Buddhism for which thangkas are one of our best unbroken records of intercultural adoption, he is the earliest example we have from a now massive literary body of work concerned with 'coming wise ones' and in work specific to him, he is promised to be the last to appear at the end of our particular age.
These figures, from various sources, are now the subjects of magic paintings tightly controlled by a tradition of iconography. They are used to practice one's own development, they are one of the most clearly stated intentional uses of imagination in art that I know of. They're also full of wonderful variation, so there really is a thankgka subject for everyone - beauty, sexuality, wrath, skulls, weapons, flowers, gemstones, monsters, animals, demons, angels... the works. All of it is closely related to storytelling, inseparable from it in fact. So if you've ever wondered who those subjects are, the answer is probably stranger than you'd think, and this book is the best survey of the most common characters I've seen. Useful reference to anyone who studies art history.
((I was provided with access to a library as part of spending this winter in close proximity to a cultural center. I have been involved in some way with Buddhism for my entire adult life, but this tradition is the least familiar to me, and for good reason. Imagine that once upon a time there were seven great libraries, and all but one of them was burned down. So this tradition also protects the thoughts and scholarship of entire cultures, many vanished, while at the same time provides a long continuous record of striving to move into the future by acquiring knowledge and living a principled life. The result of this reading list has been to discover uncanny similarities in such colorful difference, which has brought me closer to the philosophy of non-duality that has meant so much to my education. I am sharing a list that I can recommend, this does not make an expert in the slightest, but I can promise these are rich and better distillations than many I have scanned.))
Summary of the subtitle: Buddhas are awakened teachers from any age or place, past or future. Bodhisattvas are like saints, beings who have committed themselves to awakening, as well as the future manifestation of a student. Tantric Deities are personal focal figures used in the study of magic.
As a young person my mind was opened to a sense that the world was much larger than my society let on, by discovering the ritual iconographic painting still produced in the Himalayas, called Thangka. There was an increasing awareness of this art, because the indigenous culture that developed the art form was in an endangered state, and at the time was a refugee crisis that captured public awareness. Of course there have been other crises since then, and we are promised only more. The result of the awareness of another culture's plight was curiosity and empathy, and this produced an increase in translation activity, which brought new knowledge into the reach of an English speaking audience. It is a curious twist of conflict, that whomever is most harmed by our negative qualities, somehow manages to inject some of their own culture right back into our lives, by the action of our positive qualities. This simple logic would suggest that if an isolationist power, such as a racist institution, wishes to avoid increasing the popularity and familiarity of a chosen enemy, it should avoid engaging in conflict with them! Alas, common sense is not so common, and in that case, thank goodness.
This book is a general walk through some of the key transcendental hero deities that are so unique to the tradition of tantra and frequently appear as the central figures of the paintings. Their proportions and attributes specifically identify them, in an unbroken tradition of anthopomorphics that extends to the neolithic. With these deities, teachers and spirits, the identity usually correlates to a body of literature and visualizations, as well as embodying conceptual magic and ethical principles. These visualizations are usually quite spectacular, completely psychedelic journeys through color, taste, smell and sound. The student often makes a special connection to one of these figures, either through a dream, or choice, or assignment, and so will have a personal thangka subject for their own practice. In turn, this figure belongs to one of several 'families' so that one's temperament can be matched to an entire pantheon specific to a path most useful for their growth. Sometimes the figure an adaptation of something that had existed before, more often is is a completely new creation or has only surface resemblances, as with many demonic and wrathful entities which have exhibited the capacity for becoming enlightened, and are revered for this. It is becoming well known that Heracles, or Samson, is one example of this adoption, known all the way east as Vajrapani, the lightning king, for he is unmistakably present in the earliest known Buddhist art excavated in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If you were to see a thangka of Vajrapani, you wouldn't recognize him until you looked closely and noticed small details, however transformed... in the thangkas he has been given dark skin, and his club is reduced to a small lightning symbol, the trademark lion skin now tied around his waist, and his sacred knot, ancient western symbol of love, marriage and loyalty, is a simple cord held in his hand, echoed in a languid snake wrapped around his neck. Obviously he does not have three eyes in the west nor is presented surrounded by fire, nevertheless, the adoption is clearly recorded each step of the way. Further, in the dawn of literary Buddhism for which thangkas are one of our best unbroken records of intercultural adoption, he is the earliest example we have from a now massive literary body of work concerned with 'coming wise ones' and in work specific to him, he is promised to be the last to appear at the end of our particular age.
These figures, from various sources, are now the subjects of magic paintings tightly controlled by a tradition of iconography. They are used to practice one's own development, they are one of the most clearly stated intentional uses of imagination in art that I know of. They're also full of wonderful variation, so there really is a thankgka subject for everyone - beauty, sexuality, wrath, skulls, weapons, flowers, gemstones, monsters, animals, demons, angels... the works. All of it is closely related to storytelling, inseparable from it in fact. So if you've ever wondered who those subjects are, the answer is probably stranger than you'd think, and this book is the best survey of the most common characters I've seen. Useful reference to anyone who studies art history.
October 22, 2019
Amazing tour de force through the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Deities and Tibetan Buddhism, complete with excellent visuals: highly recommended to any serious student of Buddhism.
March 3, 2024
An amazing reference book. I'm sure I will return to it again and again.
September 28, 2025
So much information but presented in an accessible way, I will have to revisit as my old brain has an inability to hold onto the many new names.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews