Divining with Achi and Tārā

Divining with Achi and Tārā
Author: Jan-Ulrich Sobisch
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2019-09-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004402624

Divining with Achi and Tārā is a book on Tibetan methods of prognostics with dice and prayer beads (mālā). Jan-Ulrich Sobisch offers a thorough discussion of Chinese, Indian, Turkic, and Tibetan traditions of divination, its techniques, rituals, tools, and poetic language. Interviews with Tibetan masters of divination introduce the main part with a translation of a dice divination manual of the deity Achi that is still part of a living tradition. Solvej Nielsen contributes further interviews, a mālā divination of Tārā and its oral tradition, and very useful glossaries of the terminology of Tibetan divination and fortune telling. Appendices provide lists of deities and spirits and of numerous identified ritual remedies and supports that are an essential element of a still vibrant Tibetan culture.

Tibetan Demonology

Tibetan Demonology
Author: Christopher Bell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2020-07-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1108587097

Tibetan Demonology discusses the rich taxonomy of gods and demons encountered in Tibet. These spirits are often the cause of, and exhorted for, diverse violent and wrathful activities. This Element consists of four thematic sections. The first section, 'Spirits and the Body', explores oracular possession and spirit-induced illnesses. The second section, 'Spirits and Time', discusses the role of gods in Tibetan astrology and ritual calendars. The third section, 'Spirits and Space', examines the relationship between divinities and the Tibetan landscape. The final section, 'Spirits and Doctrine', explores how certain deities act as fierce protectors of religious and political institutions.

Updating to Remain the Same

Updating to Remain the Same
Author: Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2016-05-27
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262333783

What it means when media moves from the new to the habitual—when our bodies become archives of supposedly obsolescent media, streaming, updating, sharing, saving. New media—we are told—exist at the bleeding edge of obsolescence. We thus forever try to catch up, updating to remain the same. Meanwhile, analytic, creative, and commercial efforts focus exclusively on the next big thing: figuring out what will spread and who will spread it the fastest. But what do we miss in this constant push to the future? In Updating to Remain the Same, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun suggests another approach, arguing that our media matter most when they seem not to matter at all—when they have moved from “new” to habitual. Smart phones, for example, no longer amaze, but they increasingly structure and monitor our lives. Through habits, Chun says, new media become embedded in our lives—indeed, we become our machines: we stream, update, capture, upload, link, save, trash, and troll. Chun links habits to the rise of networks as the defining concept of our era. Networks have been central to the emergence of neoliberalism, replacing “society” with groupings of individuals and connectable “YOUS.” (For isn't “new media” actually “NYOU media”?) Habit is central to the inversion of privacy and publicity that drives neoliberalism and networks. Why do we view our networked devices as “personal” when they are so chatty and promiscuous? What would happen, Chun asks, if, rather than pushing for privacy that is no privacy, we demanded public rights—the right to be exposed, to take risks and to be in public and not be attacked?

Cauldron of the Gods

Cauldron of the Gods
Author: Jan Fries
Publisher: Mandrake
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2005
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9781869928612

Imagine the forest. As darkness falls, the somber beeches disappear in misty twilight and shadows seem to gather under their branches. Far away, the blackbird's call tells of the coming of the night. The birds cease their singing, silence descends, soon the beasts of the night will make their appearance. Between tangled roots, hidden by nettles and brambles, the earth seems to ripple. A few humps of earth seem to emerge from the ground. They are the last traces of burial mounds, of mounds, which were tall and high 2500 years ago. Many of them have disappeared, hidden by tangled roots of beech and oak, ploughed flat by careless farmers, others again show caved-in tops where grave robbers have looted the central chamber. The locals shun these hills. There are tales that strange fires can be seen glowing on the mounds, and that on spooky nights, great armed warriors arise from their resting places. Then the doors to the deep are thrown open and unwary travelers have to beware of being invited into the halls of the dead and unborn. Here the kings of the deep feast and celebrate, time passes differently and strange treasures may be found. Who knows the nights when the gates are open? Who carries the primrose, the wish-flower, the strange blossom that opens the doors to the hollow hills?

The Essence of Nectar

The Essence of Nectar
Author: Yeshe Tsöndru
Publisher: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2019-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 8185102023

The "The Essence of Nectar” (Lam rim bdus rtsi snying po), an extensive prayer written by Yeshi Tsondru, an incarnate Lama of the Gelug tradition, is a poetic supplement of the "Great Exposition of the Graded Path" (Lam Rim Chen Mo) written by the founder of the Gelug tradition, Je Tsong Kha pa (1357-1419). Such teachings were promulgated by Buddha Shakyamuni in the 5th century B.C. and subsequently transmitted through a succession of realised Indian and Tibetan masters. In this work, Yeshi Tsondru eloquently synthesizes all the cogent points of the progressive meditations leading to the awakening of a Buddha: the complete eradication of suffering and the attainment of all wholesome spiritual qualities. In the process he draws examples from various facets of life in order that one may enrich one's meditations on the "Graded Path" and easily apply the practices to the development of one's thoughts and conduct. This English translation, completed under the supervision of Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, a master of Tsong Kha pa's tradition, brings out the beauty and poetic flavour of the original work. The comprehensive notes and glossary provide valuable information on the technical terms used and also reveal hidden points of the text, thereby making this synopsis of the complete path to Buddhahood open to many.