Making a mantra : tantric ritual and renunciation on the Jain path to liberation / Ellen Gough.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gough, Ellen, author.

Series:

Class 200, new studies in religion

Class 200 new studies in religion

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jaina mantras.

Jainism--Rituals.

Jainism.

Physical Description:

xv, 315 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Summary:

"Jainism originated in India and shares some features with Buddhism and Hinduism, but it is a distinct tradition with its own key texts, ontology and epistemology, art, rituals, beliefs, and history. One way it has been distinguished from Buddhism and Hinduism is through the contested category of Tantra: Jainism, unlike the others, is said to be a non-tantric tradition. But in Making a Mantra, Ellen Gough refines our understanding of Tantra by looking at the development over 2,000 years of something that has never been considered to be "tantric": a Jain incantation (mantra) that evolved from an auspicious invocation in a second-century text to a key component of mendicant initiations and meditations that continue to this day. Studies of South Asian religions characterize Jainism as a celibate, ascetic path to liberation in which one destroys karma through austerities, while the tantric path to liberation is characterized as embracing the pleasures of the material world, requiring the ritual use of mantras to destroy karma. Gough, however, argues that asceticism and Tantra should not be put in opposition to one another, and she does so by showing that Jains perform "tantric" rituals of initiation and meditation on mantras and mandalas. Jainism includes kinds of tantric practices, Gough provocatively argues, because tantric practices are a logical extension of the ascetic path to liberation"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. ONE SETTING THE SCENE

Introduction. Tantra, Asceticism, and the Life of a Mantra

1. From Mangala to Mantra: Destroying Karma with Sound

pt. TWO THE TANTRICIZATION OF MENDICANT INITIATION

2. Mandalas and Mantras: The Jina's Preaching Assembly as a Tantric Initiation Diagram

3. Sects and Secrecy: Comparing the Mantras of the Levels of Initiation

pt. THREE THE TANTRICIZATION OF DAILY WORSHIP

4. Tantric Meditation as a Means of Liberation

5. The Tantric Rituals of Modern Monks.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226767062

022676706X

9780226766904

022676690X

OCLC:

1200579437

Publisher Number:

99988764361