Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eighty-Four Buddhist Siddhas

by Keith Dowman and Abhayadatta

In Tibetan Buddhism, Mahamudra represents a perfected level of meditative realization: it is the inseparable union of wisdom and compassion, of emptiness and skillful means. These eighty-four masters, some historical, some archetypal, accomplished this practice in India where they lived between the eighth and twelfth centuries. Leading unconventional lives, the siddhas include some of the greatest Buddhist teachers; Tilopa, Naropa, and Marpa among them. Through many years of study, Keith Dowman has collected and translated their songs of realization and the legends about them. In consultation with contemporary teachers, he gives a commentary on each of the Great Adepts and culls from available resources what we can know of their history.

Dowman's extensive Introduction traces the development of tantra and discusses the key concepts of the Mahamudra. In a lively and illuminating style, he unfolds the deeper understandings of mind that the texts encode. His treatment of the many parallels to contemporary psychology and experience makes a valualbe contribution to our understanding of human nature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887061605
• ISBN13: 9780887061608
• Release Date: August 1986
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 472 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

All the mahasiddhas in one volume!

Dowman's book is a translation, or, as Dowman himself calls it, adaption, of a Tibetan text "Legends of the Eighty-four mahasiddhas" and is as such central among the translations of Vajrayana Buddhist texts available in English. All the biographies are given here in one volume along with a good introduction to Buddhist tantra. Along with every biography is given a short verse from another Tibetan work; the verse describes in a condensed form the nature of the given siddha's realisation. Also, after the particular biography, Dowman describes the particular practice (sadhana) of each mahasiddha, and finally, in a historiography section at the end of each legend, discusses certain factors, particulars not given in the biographies themselves, as trying to locate in time and space where the stories take place. The commentaries are what really make the book worth reading, because the legends themselves are difficult to understand. Dowman shows that these old stories are not just fairy tales about magicians. They tell something significant about how to progress spiritually, sometimes from the unlikeliest of circumstances.