Customer Reviews

Highest Yoga Tantra

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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Daniel Cozort studied with Jeffrey Hopkins at the University of Virginia. I believe that this book is an outgrowth of his thesis work there. I have the UVa Press edition and I am very happy to see Snow Lion Press pick this up.

As the previous reviewer mentions, if you have an empowerment, it would make the material here a little more accessible. However, even without one, the metaphorical descriptions like "moonlight on water" will help you get a taste for what Cozort has so faithfully translated.

I believe this is this first time this tantra has been made available to the Western reader. (If the author reads the reviews here, I have been waiting for years now for you to translate more of these jewels.)

Tantra is meant to be lived and, perhaps, "rehearsed", not merely read. Cozort, remarkably, maintains the exoteric/esoteric intent of the original author. For the seeker, it is art, poetry, psychology, drama, and philosophy...more than enough to make you want to know more. For the initiated, it is a reliable roadmap, often urgently needed.

While there are dozens of basic and general books on Tibetan Buddhism, it is great to see something a little more advanced being written for the Western reader. Hope to see much more from this promising author.

(An aside to the previous reviewer: As I know it, Vajrayana uses desire in the path. As such, it may be well-suited to a typically outward Western livestyle. You may not have to adapt the beggar's bowl at all to successfully practice it.)

Professor of Religion Daniel Cozort offers the fruits of his studies with numerous Tibetan lamas in Highest Yoga Tantra, a straightforward discussion of the methods to transform one's body and mind through the highest forms of tantric practice, as applied in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Part One offers an introduction to the practices common to sutra and tantra, Part Two presents the generation stage of Highest Yoga Tantra, Part Three studies the completion stage yogas (physical isolation, verbal isolation, mental isolation, illusory body, clear light, and unison), and Part Four compares the Kalachakra and Guhyasamaja stages of completion. Highest Yoga Tantra offers a clear-minded, no-nonsense scrutiny of the meditation disciplines requisite to advanced practices of Tibetan Buddhism, and is highly recommended for anyone interested in learning more about or personally experiencing the highest tantras.

As other reviewers have noted, this is a fine overview of the topic. I only wish to add, because it may be of interest to some readers and is not discernable from the promotional material, that Cozart discusses the matter entirely from the Geluk perspective. Readers interested in Sakya and Kagyu perspectives will have to look elsewhere.

I can't really agree with the many glowing reviews here. Certainly there is some interesting information within this book, and a huge variety of practices are mentioned... But the author himself concedes the book will be "mainly an outline or overview," and I'd have to say that in my opinion it is SOLELY an outline or overview. The book is little more than a 130-page list of various practices, stages, and definitions of the two former --- all of them according solely to the Gelukpa point of view, and none of them with nearly enough detail or information to actually be practiced. So where is the real value? The information may be accurate but it is of little, if any, practical value to a practitioner, except perhaps as a bird's eye view 'roadmap' as one reviewer suggested.

I was disappointed that there is little real scholarship going on here. As Cozort is allegedly a Western scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, and not a monk, I think it is incumbent upon him to add some critical analysis, of some kind, to the material presented. Instead, it is all simply presented as is, without any reflection on what is being said. Actually I don't think there is a single original thought or insight of any kind (by Cozort, that is) throughout the entire book.

Not really recommended.

Are you interested in this sort of thing? Try reading books about the Big Bang if you are having trouble with emptiness. Emptiness and bliss are the two main themes in this book. So what about bliss? I experienced bliss quite spontaneously after reading this book. I would not be able to repeat the experience, but I did experience it. Read this book and see what you think. At first , it seems like so much mumbo jumbo. It takes an empowerment to study this Yoga. Who knows? Perhaps you will sell all your material belongings and begin the path. Good luck!