Secret of the Vajra World: The Tantirc Buddhism of Tibet [Hardcover]

Reginald A. Ray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2001

This book provides an entrée into the Tantric (or Vajrayana) Buddhism of Tibet, as conveyed by Tibetan masters teaching in the West, and as received by their Western students. The Tantric tradition is a unique collection of lesser-known texts, concepts, and meditation practices that are usually made available only to experienced and specially initiated practitioners. The "Vajra World" ( vajradhatu in Sanskrit) is a realm of indestructibility, the level of reality beyond all thought and imagination, all impermanence and change, which a fully realized person knows and inhabits. Used metaphorically, "Vajra World" refers to the traditional culture of Tibet and the unique spirituality that is its secret strength. Topics include: The tantric view of human nature and the external world The special role of the guru, or tantric mentor The preliminary practices that prepare the student for full initiation The major dimensions of Vajrayana practice, including visualizations, liturgies, and inner yogas The tradition of the tulku, or incarnate lama The lore surrounding the death of ordinary people and of saints The practice of solitary retreat, the epitome of traditional Tibetan Buddhism Secret of the Vajra World is the companion volume to the author's earlier book, Indestructible Truth: The Living Spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism. While that book focuses on the history, cosmology, philosophy, and practice of the more public, exoteric side of Tibetan Buddhism, this work treats its more hidden and esoteric aspects as they take shape in Vajrayana. Together, the two volumes provide a broad introduction to the major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Move over, Robert Thurman--Tibetan Buddhism has a new secular prophet. Learned, articulate, and devoted to his subject, Reginald Ray writes about Tibetan Buddhism as an insider and as a teacher who gets his point across quickly and clearly, without dross or hyperbole. Following the success of Indestructible Truth, his general introduction to the history, sects, and forms of Tibetan Buddhism, Ray now tackles the more subtle and esoteric side of vajra, or indestructibility. Divided into four parts, the first section sets the historical stage. In the second, we enter the unique universe of tantra--the limitations of thought, the use of mandalas, the devotion to a teacher. Here Ray also introduces practice with personal deities and the inner yogas that explore the "subtle, energetic dimensions of the body." Part 3 is devoted the twin pinnacles of Tibetan Buddhism, mahamudra and dzogchen, which ultimately both teach the complete ordinariness of enlightened existence. In Part 4, Ray explains a variety of practices related to dying, incarnate lamas, and the retreat. Throughout, the reader gets the sense that Ray is a teacher with the priceless ability to transmit his vast knowledge to outsiders. --Brian Bruya

Review

"An accessible, far-ranging guidebook."— Tricycle --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala (May 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157062772X
• ISBN-13: 978-1570627729
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,633,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read this after you've been on the road awhile, May 13, 2003

By 

Dale A. Favier (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secret of the Vajra World: The Tantirc Buddhism of Tibet (Hardcover)

~
Despite its unfortunate title, this is one of the most readable and informative books I've read about Tibetan Tantra. It's not a "first book" -- not one of those books that makes converts, like Walpola Rahula's "What the Buddha Taught," or the Dalai Lama's "Art of Living," or Suzuki Roshi's "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind." Those books distill the Buddhism into a single powerful, moving message, leaving behind everything distracting or extraneous -- they're basically the Four Noble Truths, told again, told new. If you want a simple introduction to Buddhism, read one of those, not this.

This is a completely different kind of book. It's full of details and byways. What's the difference between Nyingma, Gelugpa, Kagyu, and Sakya? What are the four different Ngondro practices? What's a Yidam? What's Tummo? What are all those Kayas, and how do they signify? How is Mahamudra different from Dzogchen?

If you're not already a Tibetan Buddhist, you probably don't want to know these things. If you just became one, don't mess with all that stuff yet: find a good teacher, listen to what he or she says, ask a lot of questions, and meditate a lot.

This is, however, a great book for a year or two down the road, when you've settled down to some practice and are starting to get irritated by all the terminology you still don't know, and all the references to persons, places, practices, and things that everyone seems to think you'd just magically already know about. This book is sort of like that trusted friend you sidle up to after puja to ask, "so just what *is* a Bhumi, anyway?"

Not that The Secret of the Vajra World doesn't have its inspiring moments. The story of the 16th Karmapa's death in a Western hospital is very moving, as are the stories of various Westerners on retreat. Ray's own commitment and inspiration come through very clearly. But the book's main virtues are accuracy and detail. There's simply a lot of information here, easy to find, easy to digest, about what people who practice Tibetan Buddhism actually do, how they do it, and why they do it.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Outstanding Second Volume, August 2, 2002

By 

Nicq MacDonald (Sioux Falls, SD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret of the Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet (World of Tibetan Buddhism, Vol. 2) (Paperback)

I read Reginald Ray's "Indestructable Truth", the first volume in his "World of Tibetan Buddhism" series, last summer while camping in the Sierras. I was fascinated by the account of the various masters, lineages, stories and practices of the Tibetan Buddhist religion, and was left wanting more.

With "Secret of the Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet", I got what I wanted.

Here Ray has delivered exactly what someone who holds the title "senior teacher" (Acharya) should- he shows the reader the history and philosophy of the Tantric path in as much detail as a single book can allow. He discusses the Vajrayana lineages of Tibet, with special emphasis on the Nyingma and Kagyu. He tells us tales of the Mahasiddhas- individuals like Padmasambhava, Tilopa, Marpa, and (my favorite), Milarepa. He discusses the institutionalization of the Tantra as the Vajrayana, the "third yana" of Buddhism (along with the Hinayana and Mahayana).

Ray then goes on to discuss the philosophy behind the Vajrayana and how it developed out of Nagarjuna's Madhyamika philosophy and the work of "forest adepts" (siddhas) in Northern India in the 7th-8th centuries. He discusses the sadhanas that make up the basis of Tantric practices, as well as the six internal yogas of Naropa, the Mahamudra, and the Dzokchen teachings. He then concludes the book with a discussion of the Tulku tradition, death practices, reincarnation, and the peculiar events surrounding the death of the Karmapa in 1981, as well as the peculiar events surrounding the birth of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (I was also happy to hear that a new Trungpa Tulku has been discovered and is in training). Ray doesn't even shy away from discussing the Dzokchen "Rainbow Body" and the passing of realized masters into the samboghakaya, no matter how much this seems to conflict with modern materialist beliefs.

The Siddhas weren't just mythical adepts who lived many centuries ago- it's just as possible to become one today. In a world sorely in need of transcendental aspirations beyond insipid materialism and potential-denying Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, mysteriously enough, provides a vision that takes us beyond the modern, postmodern, and premodern world- and into a world of unlimited spiritual possibilities. Read Ray's "World of Tibetan Buddhism" series, and you'll understand why.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Secrets of Tibetan Buddhism., September 13, 2002

By 

G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Secret of the Vajra World: The Tantirc Buddhism of Tibet (Hardcover)

Reginald Ray (or "Reggie," as his students call him) is a Professor of Buddhist Studies at Naropa University and at the University of Colorado here in Boulder. He was a student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and is now a senior teacher (or "acharya") in that lineage. He is also a frequent contributor to the "Shambhala Sun" magazine. Reggie recently led a weekend meditation retreat at Naropa, in which he demonstrated his ability as a teacher to give practical application to Tibetan Buddhism in the modern world. It is his same remarkable ability to give ordinary meaning to the otherwise esoteric teachings and practices of Tibetan Buddhism that makes Reggie's SECRET OF THE VAJRA WORLD such a compelling book.

This is the companion volume to Ray's previous book, INDESTRUCTIBLE TRUTH (2000). Whereas his earlier book examined the Hinayana (the "lesser vehicle") and Mahayana (the "great vehicle") traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, this book focuses on the Vajrayana ("adamantine") vehicle. In Buddhism, one's spiritual life is viewed as a progressive journey through these three "yanas," or stages. (p. 66). When read together, these two volumes provide us with a broad survey of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Hinayana vehicle consists of entering the path of Buddhism by taking refuge, and then training oneself in ethics, meditation, and wisdom. The Mahayana vehicle involves taking the bodhisattva vow to liberate all beings from suffering (p. 67). The "indestructible vehicle" of Vajrayana is a more advanced level of bodhisattva practice, in which the tantric practitioner works to fulfill his bodhisattva vow through yoga, meditation, and retreat practices (p. 68). The Vajrayana practice examines the nature of reality "beyond emptiness" (p. 87). The vajra practitioner, Trungpa Rinpoche taught, "is extremely sharp, intellectual, analytical" and relates with things precisely . . . "precisely open and clear, analytically cool, cold, possibly unfriendly, but always on the dot. Seeing all the highlights of things as they are" (p. 135).

Reggie's SECRET OF THE VAJRA WORLD is organized into four parts: the first, an overview of the history, philosophy, and training supporting Vajrayana Buddhism; the second, an examination of the special role of a teacher, "guru," or tantric mentor; the third, an exploration of the mahamudra and dzokchen culminating practices; and the fourth, a fascinating look at the tulku tradition surrounding reincarnation.

Whether he is teaching his students how to meditate in the ancient traditions of Tibetan Buddhism in the modern world, or giving everyday meaning to the esoteric teachings and practices of Tibetan Buddism in his books, Reggie Ray is a trusted teacher who knows his subject. And for anyone interested in exploring Tibetan Buddhism, the SECRET OF THE VAJRA WORLD and its earlier companion, INDESTRUCTIBLE TRUTH, are the books to read.

G. Merritt