The Ecstasy of Enlightenment: Teaching of Natural Tantra [Paperback]

Thomas Cleary (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

The Ecstasy of Enlightenment is an inside look at the spiritual world of Tantra--one of themost sophisticated, alluring, and controversial forms of Buddhism. Cleary unlocks the mysteries of the Carya-Giti, a collections of teachings by more than twenty famous Siddhas, or Tantric adepts, who lived during the illustrius Pala dynasty of old Bengal. These teachings emanate from one of the most dynamic sources of international Buddhism, at the height of its religious development, and as such, they are completely nonsectarian. Particularly noteworth is Cleary's demonstration of the parallels between Tantric Buddhism in Old Bengal and the original Zen Buddhism of China.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Red Wheel / Weiser (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578630274
• ISBN-13: 978-1578630271
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Cleary is the preeminent translator of classic Eastern texts, including The Essential Tao, The Essential Confucius, The Secret of the Golden Flower, and the bestselling The Art of War.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful translation and explication of the Carya Gita, April 26, 2009

By 

James Cartwright "bodhi-mine" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Ecstasy of Enlightenment: Teaching of Natural Tantra (Paperback)

A poet's sensitivity to language, combined with clarity of message and detailed, erudite commentary provide an insightful look into the technical language embedded in the vernacular teaching of the great Tantric Siddhas of old Bengal. The commentary seeks to shed light on the skillful means employed by the Siddhas and takes an Ekayana/Pan-Buddhist philosophical approach.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lovely poems, commentary misses the point, July 11, 2004

By 

grouper52 (Silverdale, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ecstasy of Enlightenment: Teaching of Natural Tantra (Paperback)

First, the good news. This is a handsome little book, and well written and well conceived in certain ways. It is fortunate that these poems are now available in English. The poems themselves are fascinating from a historical point of view and contain some interesting imagery. I am not able to read the original old Bengali in which these poems were written, so I don't know the accuracy of the translations, but the poetry of the translations is for the most part quite nice.

Now the bad news: Mr Cleary also provides an interlinear commentary on each poem. Mr. Cleary makes a good stab at this, but I think he really misses the point. His approach is far too intellectual (no ecstacy here!) and rather narrow in scope, and it is not Tantric! These are Tantric poems, not scholarly Madhayamika-Prasanghika poems. The symbolism is conveyed in multiple rich layers of sensuous physicality, Tantric psychology and spirituality that seem lost on Mr. Cleary. I've practiced Hindu Tantra and then Tibetan Buddhist Tantra (which grew out of Tantrism from other parts of India) for many years now, and it is obvious to me what most of the symbolism is talking about, but the author hasn't a clue IMHO. The commentaries are also strictly limited to interlinear notes: there are no summary statements for each poem that would link the themes together. I suspect he didn't do this because he didn't often see the unity in each poem because he was way off base about the meaning of the symbolism, all caught up in non-Tantric Zen/Taoist stuff. Hence, the commentaries end up as a series of short unrelated paragraphs mistakenly interpreting almost every symbol from a Sutra perspective, only rarely bringing in an interpretation that addresses Tantra or the blending of Tantra and Sutra. It would have been better just to publish the poems.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A diary?, February 6, 2004

By 

Thea Holmgren "theaholmgren2" (Henderson, NV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Ecstasy of Enlightenment: Teaching of Natural Tantra (Paperback)

If you are VERY new to eastern thought or one who wants someone to break things down for you to the 'nth degree, this could work for you. For everyone else there is one not-too-basic anaylsis and about an additional 10% which seemed insightful. Sorry, I think this was probably someones reading diary and a good one at that; however, it was too basic too fit my needs even for easy reading.