The life and works of the mysterious Indian yogin, Saraha, who has inspired Buddhist practitioners for over a thousand years.

Saraha, "the Archer," was a mysterious but influential tenth-century Indian Buddhist tantric adept who expressed his spiritual realization in mystic songs (dohas) that are enlightening, shocking, and confounding by turns. Saraha's poetic verses made the esoteric ideas and practices of Vajrayana accessible to a wide audience on the Indian subcontinent and served as a basis for the exposition, in Tibet, of mahamudra, the great-seal meditation on the nature of mind that permeates every tradition of Buddhism on the Tibetan plateau.

This is the first book to attempt a thorough treatment of the context, life, works, poetics, and teachings of Saraha. It features a search for the "historical" Saraha through evidence provided by our knowledge of the medieval Indian context in which he likely lived, the biographical legends that grew up around him in Tibet, and the works attributed to him in Indic and Tibetan text collections; a consideration of the various guises in which Saraha appears in his writings (as poet, social and religious critic, radical gnostic thinker, and more); an overview of Saraha's poetic and religious legacy in South Asia and beyond; and complete or partial translations, from Tibetan, of over two dozen works attributed to Saraha. These include nearly all his spiritual songs, from his well-known Doha Trilogy to obscure but important expositions of mahamudra, as well as several previously untranslated works.

Saraha: Poet of Blissful Awareness, Roger R. Jackson, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 588 pages, $34.95

Roger R. Jackson, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies and Religion at Carleton College. He has nearly 50 years of experience with the study and practice of Buddhism, particularly in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. His special interests include Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and ritual; Buddhist religious poetry; religion and society in Sri Lanka; the study of mysticism; and contemporary Buddhist thought. Roger is a highly respected and beloved scholar, Dharma teacher, and writer. He has authored many scholarly books and articles, and is a frequent contributor to Lion�s Roar, Buddhadharma, and Tricycle magazines.