Tantra

Ritual Theory at the Margins of a Minority Tradition

Response
In this response, Joel Bordeaux notes that Ellen Gough's focus on the ritual components and "tantricization" of Jain ascetic practices offers a new way of thinking through and contextualizing the "notoriously slippery notion of Tantra" in the subcontinent.

On Tantra, Jain Style

Response
"The story that Dr. Gough is telling about the development of Jain tantra—the Jain adoption of mantra-practice, but rejection of antinomianism—thus seems to me to be a fundamentally noteworthy case-study," writes Anne Mocko on our interview with Ellen Gough discussing the 'tantricization' of Jain ascetic rituals.

On the Tantricization of Jain Ascetic Rituals

Podcast
In the RSP’s first episode on Jainism, Dr. Ellen Gough joins Andie Alexander to discuss what she terms “tantricization,” a method for thinking about the process of establishing something as tantric.

Studying Tantra from the Inside and Out

Response
In this interview on ‘Studying Tantra from the Inside and Out’, Douglas R Brooks allows the listener an insight into his own personal and academic development, and an account of how various factors led him to the study of South Indian Shrividya Shakta Tantrism. There are many interesting elements to consider therein,...

Studying Tantra from Within and Without

Podcast
Douglas R. Brooks, Professor of Religion at the University of Rochester, discusses how he became involved in the academic study of Hinduism, specifically Tantra and goddess-centered traditions. He begins with his training in Sanskrit and Tamil at Middlebury College, ...

Historical, Popular, and Scholarly Constructions of Yoga

Podcast
In its earliest uses, the word “yoga” meant “yoke,” primarily yoking a warhorse to a chariot. In the classical period, yoga took on a variety of other meanings, including yoking the mind-body complex through meditative practices, such as breath control and mantras, to achieve liberation. In this interview, ...

On the Outside Looking In: Western Appropriations of Eastern “Subtle Body” Discourse

Response
To my knowledge, prior to the nineteenth century, suksma sarira was never applied to the body of a living human being. In India’s yogic and tantric literature, this has simply been called “the body,” I find Jay Johnston’s endeavor to integrate what she acknowledges as Eastern concepts of the “subtle body” into Western conversations on subjectivity, ethics, perception, interpersonal relations,
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