Tantra Of The Tachikawa Ryu: Secret Sex Teachings Of The Buddha

Book Summary

Breath control was very important during love making, Gessho told Dai-en. There were these levels of mother/father Buddha activity: desire, contact, congress, fulfillment, and enlightenment. She elaborated, "In more concrete terms: These levels are expressed in the acts of smiling at each other, holding hands, gazing into each others' eyes, embracing and kissing, and sexual union. Progress through each level must be gradual and each level experienced fully." The ideal for the couple was to always be centered in each other-the "Middle Way" that Buddha proclaimed-and ride the waves of ecstasy together to the end. The Tachikawa Ryu is a legendary heretical Japanese Buddhist sect that taught the highest spiritual attainments through the physical act of sex. The sect was banished in Japan and went underground hundreds of years ago, but many believe it is still active. Scholar John Stevens provides-based on actual events and authentic Tantric tradition-the first explication in English of Tachikawa Ryu teachings, in the form of an imagined narrative about the young monk Dai-en and the practiced Lady Hotoke. What emerges is a portrait of a little-known aspect of Japanese Buddhism and startling insights into the sexual lives and rituals of common worshippers as well as priests and priestesses. Included are black-and-white photographs of artwork and statuary that express the Tachikawa ideal. John Stevens lived in Japan for thirty-five years, where he was a professor of Buddhist studies and an Aikido instructor at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai. He has written many books on Japan's martial, sacred, and erotic ways and is a respected authority on esoteric Japanese culture.

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