Westerners wanting to know about tantra--particularly the Buddhist tantra of Tibet--often find only speculation and fancy. Tibet has been shrouded in mystery, and "tantra" has been called upon to name every kind of esoteric fantasy. In The Dawn of Tantra the reader meets a Tibetan meditation master and a Western scholar, each of whose grasp of Buddhist tantra is real and unquestionable. This collaboration is both true to the intent of the ancient Tibetan teachings and relevant to contemporary Western life.
The Dawn of Tantra, Herbert V. Guenther and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Shambhala Publications, Paperback, 92 pages, $16.95

Chogyam Trungpa was born in Eastern Tibet and recognized as an incarnation of the Trungpa line at an early date. He studied with, among others, one of the reincarnations of the Jamgyon Kongtrul who wrote the most famous commentary on the Seven Points. In 1959 he fled to India in the wake of the Communist takeover in Tibet, courageously leading many of his people to safety (this period is described in his book Born in Tibet.) He came to England in the mid-sixties to study at Oxford, learned English, started to teach, and started one of the first Tibetan Buddhist centers in the West. He later dropped his monastic vows, married, and moved to America where he continued his teaching. He founded the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, a large and highly respected Buddhist university, as well as the Shambhala organization. The influence of both his teaching and his books on American Buddhism was and still is enormous.

Herbert V. Guenther is Professor Emeritus of Far Eastern Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Among his many published works are his translation of The Life and Teaching of Naropa and The Dawn of Tantra.

CONTENTS: The Dawn of Tantra
ONE	Tantra: Its Origin and Presentation	1
TWO	Laying the Foundation	6
THREE	Yogacara and the Primacy of Experience	12
FOUR	The Mandala Principle and the Meditative Process	21
FIVE	The Invisibility of Openness and Compassion	26
SIX	The Development of Shunyata	34
SEVEN	The Guru-Disciple Relationship	41
EIGHT	Visualization	47
NINE	Empowerment and Initiations	53
TEN	Questions and Answers: Guenther	63
ELEVEN	Questions and Answers: Rinpoche	78
Chapters One, Three, Five, Seven, Nine and Ten are by Herbert V. Guenther
Chapters Two, Four, Six, Eight and Eleven are by Chogyam Trungpa