Passionate enlightenment

Book Description

Miranda Eberle Shaw challenges centuries of scholarly assumptions about one of Buddhism's most misunderstood traditions in this groundbreaking examination of Tantric Buddhism's origins. While Western understanding has long portrayed this medieval Indian spiritual movement as male-dominated and exploitative toward women, Shaw's meticulous research reveals a dramatically different reality.

Through extensive fieldwork in India and Nepal, Shaw uncovers compelling evidence of powerful female leaders who not only participated in Tantric Buddhism but actually founded and shaped its core teachings. Her investigation spans over forty previously overlooked texts from the Pala period, dating from the eighth through twelfth centuries, written by women practitioners themselves.

The book illuminates how Tantric Buddhism originally promoted partnership and mutual spiritual liberation between men and women, positioning female practitioners as essential sources of wisdom and enlightenment. Shaw demonstrates how the tradition's rich imagery of female Buddhas and dancing dakinis reflects genuine reverence for feminine spiritual authority rather than mere symbolism.

For readers seeking to understand authentic spiritual partnership and the sacred feminine in Buddhist practice, Shaw's work offers profound insights into how ancient practitioners viewed the transformation of human relationships into vehicles for awakening. Her scholarship reveals a tradition that honored women's spiritual leadership and recognized the path to enlightenment as fundamentally collaborative rather than hierarchical.

This research fundamentally reframes our understanding of Tantric Buddhism's historical development and its vision of gender in spiritual practice.