Yoga, tantra and other forms of Asian meditation are practised in modernized forms throughout the world today, but most introductions to Hinduism or Buddhism tell only part of the story of how they developed. This book is an interpretation of the history of Indic religions up to around 1200 CE, with particular focus on the development of yogic and tantric traditions. It assesses how much we really know about this period, and asks what sense we can make of the evolution of yogic and tantric practices, which were to become such central and important features of the Indic religious scene. Its originality lies in seeking to understand these traditions in terms of the total social and religious context of South Asian society during this period, including the religious practices of the general population with their close engagement with family, gender, economic life and other pragmatic concerns.

Yoga is growing in popularity all over the world today, yet misconceptions about its original purpose and ancient roots abound. In this refreshing tale of the history of yoga, the author unveils the true heart of the tradition. A Brief History of Yoga is essential reading for all those who care about the past and future evolution of yoga.

Translation and commentary of one of the most important texts of the Kashmirian Shivaism tradition of Tantra • Author was a student of the late Kalu Rinpoche • Explores the transmission of Mahamudra, the Great Cosmic Gesture • Includes the Vijnanabhaïrava Tantra, which contains the totality of the oldest source text on Yoga The Spandakarika, the "Tantric Song of the Divine Pulsation," is said to have been transmitted directly to the sage Vasugupta from the hands of Shiva on Mount Kailas. In his commentary on these fifty-two stanzas, the sage Ksemaraja described them as the heart of the Mahamudra. The oldest masters of Spandakarika viewed everything in the universe, including matter, as consciousness and created a yoga practice in accordance with this realization. The sacred dance of Yoga Spandakarika, Tandava, is extremely subtle and difficult, requiring thousands of hours of practice to master, yet it surpasses any other physical practice, allowing the practitioner to touch the divine inner pulse. Once its third stage has been mastered, the yogi or yogini is able to manifest the dance of Shiva in space, a tradition visible in the statuary of Tantric temples in India and Tibet. Energy is no longer contracted by the perception of duality, and the mind and body become unbounded, forming a sphere that contains all that was formerly outside. In Yoga Spandakarika Daniel Odier passes on these vanishing teachings as he received them from his Tibetan master, Kalu Rinpoche, and Kashmiri yogi Lalita Devi.

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Illustrations: Numerous Colour Illustrations Description: Tantra Yoga is a way of life...a practice based upon the philosophy of Human Experience, by means of which the Wisdom of Reality can become a part of one's innermost Nature. The Tantra is the way of the Yogi-Mystic of the East, who, through practice of this Yoga, is able to transmute the normal Mortal-Consciousness into Cosmic-Consciousness , and so experience the Blissful Joys of Reality. This book summarizes the tradition of Tantra Yoga from its origin and development in the earliest times to the present. The spread of tantrism...Animist, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sufic...from the original centres to Tibet, and thence to the West, is discussed, and the influence of this special esoteric teaching on both science and religion, is indicated. The philosophical, psychological and practical aspects of Tantra Yoga are presented, with detailed chapters on the Tantric Cosmology, Theory of Evolution, Concept of Vibration, Alchemy, Symbolism, Ritual, Rite and Sadhana (Yoga practice). Light is shed on the problems and joys which underlie the experience of life, and practical methods are indicated for overcoming the obscuring factors and for attaining the Tantric Realization. The symbolism and esoteric language is indicated and explained through the medium of sixty six beautiful colour plates, and the explanations are clarified and supported by quotations from relevant authoritative texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Hevajra Tantra, Mahanirvana Tantra and original texts, as also from the works of leading scholars. This book is a concise guide through the inner principles and outer practices of Tantra Yoga.

An anthology of primary texts drawn from the diverse yoga traditions of India, greater Asia, and the West. Focuses on the lived experiences in the many world of yoga.

In this book, Patton E. Burchett offers a path-breaking genealogical study of devotional (bhakti) Hinduism that traces its understudied historical relationships with tantra, yoga, and Sufism. Beginning in India’s early medieval “Tantric Age” and reaching to the present day, Burchett focuses his analysis on the crucial shifts of the early modern period, when the rise of bhakti communities in North India transformed the religious landscape in ways that would profoundly affect the shape of modern-day Hinduism. A Genealogy of Devotion illuminates the complex historical factors at play in the growth of bhakti in Sultanate and Mughal India through its pivotal interactions with Indic and Persianate traditions of asceticism, monasticism, politics, and literature. Shedding new light on the importance of Persian culture and popular Sufism in the history of devotional Hinduism, Burchett’s work explores the cultural encounters that reshaped early modern North Indian communities. Focusing on the Rāmānandī bhakti community and the tantric Nāth yogīs, Burchett describes the emergence of a new and Sufi-inflected devotional sensibility—an ethical, emotional, and aesthetic disposition—that was often critical of tantric and yogic religiosity. Early modern North Indian devotional critiques of tantric religiosity, he shows, prefigured colonial-era Orientalist depictions of bhakti as “religion” and tantra as “magic.” Providing a broad historical view of bhakti, tantra, and yoga while simultaneously challenging dominant scholarly conceptions of them, A Genealogy of Devotion offers a bold new narrative of the history of religion in India.