Resources

This is a short and fascinating book, for reasons the editor did not intend! The five selections move from the profound insight of the sage Tilopa to almost incomprehensible, and at times silly, instructions on practicing the Six Yogas of Naropa. Like Georg Feuerstein’s Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy which explores south Indian Tantra, It shows how original insight gathers barnacles which completely obscure the original meaning.

Well-written exploration of how Tantra arose in India as religion, ritual, magic and meditation. Samuel has such a fine perspective of what inferences to draw from the available fragmentary evidence. I regard this book as a brilliant example of modern scholarship, comfortable with ambiguity and the limits of knowledge.

An excellent description of the original cultural traditions of Indian Tantra (one of three streams of Tantra, along with Tibetan Tantra and Kashmiri Shaivism). Shows brilliantly how great insight can be beaten into esoteric submission.

Prigogine’s own explanation of the paradigm of dissipative structures. At times, it’s heavy going. Still, no one explains the concepts as well. Prigogine’s later books in which he tries to extend the paradigm to biology and history are interesting and worth reading. They illustrate that Prigogine understood the revolutionary importance of dissipative structures but couldn’t muster a broad enough inter-disciplinary reach to pull all the pieces together.

A masterful exploration of the energies that have shaped human history.

Rodgers is carrying a torch for both evolutionary biology and the importance of the brain, but the information presented here is a terrific overview of modern research into human sexuality.

This book is one of the flowers of modern, psychological Tibetan Buddhist Tantra. Covering topics such as desire, happiness, dissatisfaction, death, inspiration, and the limitations and opportunities of mind. But missing the direct experience of body and energy, how far can a psychological detour into “blissful, compassionate wisdom” go?

This is really a book on the mathematics of chaos, fractals and power laws, but is rewarding to a deader with some background in the topics. Schroeder describes power laws and aspects of self-similarity in everything from noise to gambling to language, swiss cheese to forest fires and the Game of Life.