When a Zen teacher tells you to point at your mind, which part of your body do you point at? According to the Japanese master Chikotsu Daie (1229–1312), you should point at the fistful of meat that is your heart. Esoteric Zen demonstrates that far from an outlier, Daie's understanding reflects the medieval Buddhist mainstream, in which tantric teachings and Zen were closely entwined movements that often developed within the same circles of thinkers and texts. ,br/> Drawing on newly discovered manuscript materials, it shows how medieval practitioners constructed a unique form of Zen by drawing on tantric doctrinal discourses.

This volume, the result of an international collaboration of forty scholars, provides a comprehensive resource on Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in their Chinese, Korean, and Japanese contexts from the first few centuries of the common era to the present.

Traditional esoterism, though capable of the highest degree of elaboration, is based on a few first principles - Absolute Reality, hierarchical manifestation, the necessity for initiation, the centrality of the spiritual Heart, etc.-which can be stated simply. In The Esoteric Path, Luc Benoist does just this for the monumental writings of the great metaphysician Ren Gunon. If ever there was a 'primer' on traditional metaphysics and esoterism, one that does not dumb down its subject but rather opens a door to profound spiritual depths waiting to be explored, it is this book. The first section deals in a general way with metaphysical principles, their modes of transmission and the spiritual practices based upon them. The second presents the central principles of such Eastern traditions as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Islam, and also various forms of Western Esoterism, including Eastern Orthodox Hesychasm, Freemasonry, Hermeticism, the Templars, Dante and the Fedeli d'Amore, Meister Eckhart and his 'school', etc. Far more than a bouquet of mystical teachings plucked from various sources, designed to titillate the reader's spiritual sensibilities, The Esoteric Path firmly situates that Path in its appropriate, traditional context, so that the seeker's first steps on the 'path to the Path' will be firm and confident, and point him or her in the right direction, away from the time- and soul-consuming attractions of those 'paths' that exhibit (in the author's words) 'the confusion between the spiritual and the psychic., the identification of the spiritual with what is most inferior in the psyche, the identification of religion with magic, totemism, and even sorcery, the popular dissemination of pseudo- or counter-initiatic rituals. A worthy companion to the biographical Ren Gunon and the Future of the West by Robin Waterfield and the Collected Works of Ren Gunon, also published by Sophia Perennis, The Esoteric Path will be of great value to scholars, seekers, and anyone searching for a clearer understanding of the great spiritual traditions. 'Luc Benoist is generally considered the most balanced and authentic exponent of Gunon's teaching. I know of no work in which true scholarship is combined so well with conciseness and comprehensiveness.' -Robin Waterfield

A groundbreaking exploration of a practice tradition that was nearly lost to history. Theravada Buddhism, often understood as the school that most carefully preserved the practices taught by the Buddha, has undergone tremendous change over time. Prior to Western colonialism in Asia—which brought Western and modernist intellectual concerns, such as the separation of science and religion, to bear on Buddhism—there existed a tradition of embodied, esoteric, and culturally regional Theravada meditation practices. This once-dominant traditional meditation system, known as borān kammatthāna, is related to—yet remarkably distinct from—Vipassana and other Buddhist and secular mindfulness practices that would become the hallmark of Theravada Buddhism in the twentieth century. Drawing on a quarter century of research, scholar Kate Crosby offers the first holistic discussion of borān kammatthāna, illuminating the historical events and cultural processes by which the practice has been marginalized in the modern era.

“True religion,” the great Japanese teacher Taisen Deshimaru wrote, “is not esoteric or mystical, it is not an exercise in well-being or gymnastics. True religion is the highest Way, the absolute Way: zazen.” Here, Deshimaru, the author of True Zen, offers practical suggestions for developing unitary mind-body consciousness through the principles of zazen (translated literally as "seated meditation"). Advice is given on posture, breathing, and concentration, and concepts such as karma and satori are clearly explained.