Tantric Path of Desire: Bringing Passion to the Spiritual Path

Tantric Path of Desire: Bringing Passion to the Spiritual PathA Unique Presentation of How to Practice The Quintessence of The Genuine Tantra Path Embracing Sexuality and Other Skillful Means for Reaching Immutable Bliss In the tantric path, nothing that is naturally present in our mind needs to be eliminated. Instead, we learn means for putting these mental phenomena to work for us. When all these phenomena are subjugated by the brilliance of pure and true reality, they become our friends. Though in sex, the

A Unique Presentation of How to Practice The Quintessence of The Genuine Tantra Path Embracing Sexuality and Other Skillful Means for Reaching Immutable Bliss 

“In the tantric path, nothing that is naturally present in our mind needs to be eliminated. Instead, we learn means for putting these mental phenomena to work for us. When all these phenomena are subjugated by the brilliance of pure and true reality, they become our friends.” 

Though in sex, the blissful union of the masculine and feminine principles is obvious, it actually pervades all existence; it represents the profound truth of non-dual reality and points us in its direction. Shar Khentrul Rinpoché guides us step by step on how to gain insight through the means of actual practice.

For those who aspire to be genuine Tantrikas, this book presents a way of liberation through joyfully embracing ordinary life. For those of us who seek only to experience ordinary life at its best, that goal can also be attained.

“Most followers of the Tibetan tantric Buddhist teachings are merely wearing an outer costume of tantra.” “Serious consideration of the situation of tantra is urgent before its essence is lost altogether. The time has come for going beyond mere scholarly explanations and superficial chanting of liturgies to actually restoring the practice tradition that has been corrupted and rejected in recent centuries. To do that, the full scope of tantra’s real meaning must be re-introduced.” (Shar Khentrul Rinpoché)

The book includes translations of direct sources from the Kalachakra Tantra as well a from Gendun Chöphel, one of the most revolutionary Tibetan expounders of the path fo the desire in his time. 

“Being imprisoned in a dark pit is not comparable, To young lovers kept apart by their righteous parents; Being locked in stocks is not comparable, To strict religious laws that make sweet love a crime. 

However perfect the power of a renunciate attitude, As water still flows in a river that is blocked by a dam, When an unwanted religious tax is levied on sex,  It is like constantly pushing a boulder up a hill.“ (Gendun Chöpel)


Table of Contents 

Translator’s Preface
Editor’s Preface 
Author’s Homage 

PART ONE Ten Reasons Why This Book Had to be Written
1 The Need for Re-evaluation of Present Day Understanding and Practice of Tantra 
2 The Need for Tantra to be Integrated with Daily Life
3 The Deterioration of Genuine Tantric Practice in Tibet 
4 Making Genuine Tibetan Tantric Teachings Available Outside of Tibet 
5 How Scandals Involving Lamas Indicate Problems in Tibetan Buddhism 
6 The Need for Lay Practitioners of Tantra
7 How Overemphasis of Monasticism Defeats its Own Ultimate Purpose 
8 How Buddhist Prophecies Predict that the Future of the Teachings Depends on Tantra 
9 The Need for Clear Teaching on the Guru-Student Relationship 
10 How Buddhist Tantric Masters Are Not Giving Empowerment and Instruction in the Real Meaning and Practice of Tantra

PART TWO An Extended Explanation
1 The Meanings of “Tantra” and its Natural Secrecy
2 Distorted Views that People in Tibet and Other Countries Have of Tantra 
3 Problems of Present Tibetan Tantra
4 How Tantra is a Natural Path and Anyone Can Learn It
5 Human Nature in Relation to the Individual Liberation, Bodhisattva, and Tantra Paths 
6 How the Essence of the Lower Vows Exists within the Higher Ones 

PART THREE Bringing Kleśhas to the Path
Introduction
1 Bringing Anger to the Path 
2 Bringing Pride to the Path
3 Bringing Jealousy to the Path
4 Bringing Miserliness to the Path
5 Bringing Ignorance to the Path 
6 Bringing Doubt to the Path 

PART FOUR The Path of Desire
1 How Desire Pervades Our Human Life 
2 The Great Power of Desire 
3 How Sexual Desire is Natural in Human Life and the Faults of Fighting Against It 
4 How All Individuals Can Start with the Capabilities They Have 
5 The Sacred Nature of Sex and Preliminary Perceptions 
6 Clearing Misconceptions with Detailed Presentation of Different Types of Thiglé
7 Actual Sexual Union 
8 Different Kinds of Mudrās and the Four Joys 
9 Supplementary Explanation and Conclusion About Mudrās Supported by Scriptures and Reasoning

PART FIVE Concluding Chapters
1 How Human Life Becomes Joyful by Understanding Tantra
2 A New Way of Viewing the Guru-Student Relationship 
3 A Brief Summary of Liberation from Birth, Death, and Bardo 
4 Conclusion with Auspicious Verses and Colophon 

Appendices
I Gendün Chöpel’s Passages and Concluding Verses
II [Kālachakra Tantra Quotes]
Glossary 
Glossary lists.
Bibliography
About the Author 
Rinpoché’s Vision