Customer Reviews

Kiss of the Yogini: "Tantric Sex" in its South Asian Contexts

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

The book discussed in these pages is brilliant, well done and highly recommended. I have just finished reading it, more or less non-stop, in 2 full days. As with his earlier work (The Alchemical Body), the author's research is detailed and professional - and anyone calling it "pathetic" (anonymous review May 26 2004) or "saddening" (anonymous review May 29 2004) only admits in so doing that he or she has personal problems with the sexual aspects of Tantra as they are discussed in "The Kiss" open and honestly by David Gordon White.
Someone else called his conclusions "controversial" (anonymous review June 16 2004), yet the only "controversial" thing I can find in this book is the author's honesty - and one can only congratulate him for this - and of course he's intelligent enough to have foreseen that his theme and stance won't be liked by many - both in India and within the "New Age Tantra" community across the hemispheres.
To everyone who has read actual Tantric texts - even in translation - White's conclusions are fully in concordance with previously published material AND with actual practice - the real merit of this book lies in presenting us with more and new material (translated by the author), and by connecting and combining previously difficult to relate evidence.
So what is the book actually about that shocks so many sensitive minds? It is the fact that White establishes more firmly than has been done (in scholarly circles) before, that Tantric ritual makes use of the fluids that arise from the genitals - both female and male. And we're not only talking about orgasmic emissions, we're also talking about the magical blood we call menstruation. And we're talking about oral sex. So the author must have known that he'll get plenty of `flames' for various reasons - and I wish him that he is immune to it.
Congratulations, DGW, for this great book - and for the Vira balls to write it. May the Yogini grant you many more sweet en enlightening Kisses.

David White gives clear, detailed insights into the origins and evolution of Tantric practices. Serious students of South Asian religious history will find his meticulous work a wealth of information filled with practical examples, diverse sources and original accounts rarely, if ever, this accessible in English.

The work's logical analysis of Tantric traditions visits its roots, components, rituals and development through the centuries. White states his goal "to reconstruct a history as well, perhaps, as a religious anthropology, a sociology, and a political economy of (mainly Hindu) Tantra, from the medieval period down to the present day." Indeed, this is what his book accomplishes. Unlike other works focusing on a particular aspect of Tantra, White takes a holistic approach that includes texts, imagery, politics, art, architecture, social relationships and practice in his sources.

His linguistic abilities enabled him to include translated excerpts from more than 25 ancient Sanskrit works. He also references many modern sources that had me frequently returning to Amazon to order more books!

White's creative vocabulary delights and stimulates; Acoustic phoneme, aestheticize, cosmeticized, countercasuistry, dissimulation, doctrine of radical nonduality, gerocomy, gnoseological, homologous, hegemonic, nondiscursive agglomerations, occulted, photeme, photic grapheme, polyvalence, postmodernisme oblige, semanticize, scholasticist, soteriology and typology are a few examples of the verbal tools he wields to make his finer points.

The resulting prose is necessarily dense; a complex treatment by an expert immersed in his topic. Most paragraphs cite multiple sources, all thoroughly described in his bibliography and copious endnotes. The book also includes more than 25 helpful illustrations that give visual representations of many concepts.

My only suggestion to improve future editions is that it would be helpful to add the following graphics: [1] Timelines - to illustrate chronological relationships of literary works, religious traditions and teachers referenced; [2] Hierarchical diagrams - to illustrate relationships among the multiple systems of gods, goddesses, demons, deities, yogis, yoginis, dakinis, etc. and; [3] Maps - to show geographical and temporal relationships in the spread of Tantric practices and related political systems.

Finally, I must comment on a few of the poor "reviews" of this work that sadly appear on Amazon. It is obvious that some people have not read the book. Like most fanatics, they leap to judge something they don't care to accept or understand.

In his five page preface, and in many other chapters, White makes it quite clear that he is a scholar with tremendous respect for Indian and Hindu religious traditions. His years of investigative effort in original sources establish strong pedigrees of origin that, in fact, enhance the basis of these traditions. The only groups White directly criticizes are "New Age" proponents of Tantra who have hijacked Indian culture and distorted it for commercial gain in the West. His historically accurate report is no threat to any tradition based on truth.

I have not finished this book yet because I have been savoring it like a good french meal. This book has given me a piece of the puzzle I have been waiting for a long time in terms of my own personal practice. It is very scholarly and thorough. My regards to the author.

Maybe it's because I'm searching for my inner goddess, but I found this book very interesting, dense at times, but filled with amazing information that every woman should read--or at least hear about.
Ari

A masterfully written origins of tantric sexual practice
written by a professor who does not place himself above his readers.A well researched technical history!!!

The interpretation of the selective scriptural sources in this book and the conclusions the book reaches are strange and slanted. It seems to make the case that there is no valid spiritual dimension to Hindu/Buddhist Tantra at all. Limited and disappointing.

Instead read this ...

Tantra : Path of Ecstasy
by Ph.D. Georg Feuerstein

Review From Publishers Weekly
Feuerstein has attempted a daunting task, defining Tantric Yoga drawn from Hindu and not Tibetan Buddhist sources. To do this, he has assembled a wide-ranging compendium of Hindu, Tantric and Shaivite texts almost impossible to find in one place elsewhere. To plunge into this book is to find yourself rushing down the sacred River Ganges through the heart of India. Like a sophisticated travelogue, it brings into sharp focus the rich tapestry of the Indian ecstatic life and the exotic practices of Tantric Yoga that take place, metaphorically, on the banks of this Queen of rivers. The inner eye is challenged with mystical beasts bathing in the waters; holy men daubed in ashes undertaking bizarre and often previously never-before-seen Tantric rituals; the inner ear is filled with the rhythmic, pulsating chant of Om, and all its associated Sanskrit sounds; the senses are awash with meditative visions. It is a passage through Indian spiritual life that may be too sophisticated for the casual tourist, although for those who have passed this way before, it is a comprehensive and provocative commentary on the basic and advanced precepts of Tantric yoga. Written with literate modesty and erudition, this book is an invaluable resource.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The scholarship of this book is pathetic. White insists that whether Tantric practitioners themselves accept his characterization of their tradition does not matter, and he is right in taking metaphors to be the literal truth when he chooses. His main point is that Tantra was essentially nothing but sex and the higher philosophical meanings were foisted on it at a much later date.

Not only is this thesis negated by the texts themselves, it misses the meaning of the larger Indic spiritual tradition of which Tantra forms a part.

This book raises many questions: How do you interpret ancient texts? Are words to be taken literally in all contexts, or does one ask people who are within the tradition for the meanings associated with them? White chooses to ignore tradition to insist that his literal meaning of esoteric terms is the right although living Kaulas would find it wrong.

Unfortunatly, this book sinks to the same level as Kripal's book on Ramakrishna. There is nothing redeeming in this work.