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THE WAY OF POWER

A practical guide to the tantric mysticism of Tibet

By

JOHN BLOFELD

London

George Allen & Unwin ltd

Ruskin house museum street

Contents

PART I BACKGROUND AND THEORY

i. The Vajrayana

            Mystical intuitions

            The need for the sacred quest

            Choice of a path

            The Tantric way

            The Vajrayana in Tibet

            The Vajrayana for the west

ii. The Mahayana setting

            The roots of the Vajrayana

            The concept of no god

            The concept of no self

            The concept of impermanence

            The concept of ‘suffering’

            The concept of rebirth

            Samsara and Nirvana

            Karma and Causality

            Merit and its transfer

            The ‘elements of being’

            Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

            Experiential evidence

iii. The essence of the Tantric method

            Purpose

            Reasons for secrecy

            The Guru

            Various types of adept

            The short path

            Attitude

            Conduct

            Visualization

            The interplay of body, speech and mind

            The significance of rites

            Fruits of the path

            Unconventional morality

iv. Psychic and material symbols

            A question of reality

            The purpose of the symbols and Deities

            A pre-Tantric parallel

            The Mandala

            The peaceful and wrathful deities of the Mandala

            The Vajra or adamantine sceptre

            The wheel of life

            The chorten

PART II. PRACTICE

i. Aspiration

            General

            The refuges

            The Bodhisattva vow

            Obtaining a Guru

            The guru

            The adept as the Buddha

            Initiation

ii. The Preliminaries

            Purpose

            The Grand postrations

            The refuges

            The generation of Bodhicitta

            The Vajrasatta purification

            The Mandala offering

            Others

iii. General practice

            Introductory

            Daily practice

            The importance of the Yidam

            The shrine

            Regular rites and meditations

            Special rites

            The Chod rites

            Preparation for death

            Meditation in cemeteries

            Pilgrimage

            Special uses of Mantras

iv. The Sadhanas

            the general content

            The Sadhana of the essence of the profound meaning

            The fruits of the practice

            The essential core

            The arya Tara Sadhana

            The suitability of the Sadhana practice for Western adepts

v. Advanced practice

            The divisions of Tantric practice

            Supernormal powers

            Transmutation of passions and desires

            Yogic practice pertaining to the path of form

            Yogic practice pertaining to the formless path

            The Prajnaparamita

            Conclusion

Glossary

Publisher’s note

This book deal with the astonishingly picturesque and fruitful meditational method of the Tibetan Buddhists. The general Mahayana background is given together with details of the tecniques, the purpose, the underlying theory and so on of the Tantric forms of meditation. It is the first book of its kind in the English language; 90 per cent of the material is based on the first-hand experience of the author, who studied under Tibetan Lamas of both the “Yellow Hat” and “Red Hat”sects. He has endeavoured to say all that can be said of what he learnt without breaking the vows of secrecy which, for reasons explained in the book, are imposed on students of the higher meditational techniques. The subject is presented from two points of view – that of people interested in pursuing Tantric meditation in its traditional Buddhist context and that of non-Buddhists wh may wish to adapt a very powerful and effective type of meditation to their own religious practice. The author indicates why Vajrayana or Tantric techniques are better suited to certain kinds of temperament than those of Zen. The popular misconception that Tibetans are “polytheists”is explained as being due to an orthodox form of Buddhism that makes use of ancient supernatural forms to symbolize the various factors in the humain personality. Of particular interest is the author’s attempt to show that Tantric meditation can often be practised with great success by those who have failed to make much progress while using more familiar methods.

John Blofeld is the translator of the I Ching (book of change) also published by Allen and Unwin.

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