The first English translation of the Vajra Rosary Tantra, with extensive annotations from Alamkakalasha's Commentary, with a detailed introduction by the author.

The Vajra Rosary is perhaps the most significant and detailed teaching attributed to Buddha instructing a practitioner how to overcome the 108 energies and their related conceptions that circulate in the subtle body and mind, leading most of us to continued rebirth in cyclic existence. The Vajra Rosary tells us how to overcome these energies and achieve the freedom of enlightenment. It is one of the "explanatory tantras" of the Buddhist Esoteric Community (Guhyasamaja) unexcelled yoga tantric system, the most complete of the four systems of tantra described in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist literature.

The book's analysis of the Vajra Rosary Tantra illuminates for readers perhaps the most compelling reason of all to choose Rosary--the path to enlightenment is built on overcoming the 108 energy-winds and conceptualities, the number of beads on the ancient Indo-Tibetan Buddhist rosary. Readers will learn what practices to engage in to accomplish the goal of becoming a fully enlightened buddha through this comprehensive text.
Vajra Rosary Tantra: An Explanatory Tantra of the Glorious King of Tantras, The Esoteric Community Tantra, Shri Guhyasamaja Tantraraja, David R. Komodo Kittay, Wisdom Publications, Hardcover, 680 pp, $79.95

Dr. Kittay specializes in teaching courses at Columbia University on Buddhism and on Eastern and Western philosophy, including "Technology, Religion, Future," "Interpreting Buddhist Yoga, Hermeneutics East and West, "Reincarnation, Simulation, Resurrection," and "Law and Religion. He has translated, with Lozang Jamspal, the five Explanatory Tantras of the Guhyasamaja Arya tradition, together with Tsongkhapa's detailed commentaries on The Four Goddesses Explanatory Tantra and The Vajra Intuitive Wisdom Compendium Tantra, and also Pha Dampa Sangs rgyas's One Hundred Spiritual Instructions to the Dingri People, and The Symphony of Dharma Sutra, along with other books and articles about Buddhism, religion, and law. He is the President of the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York. He also writes and lectures on the subject of compassionate lawyering, and has served as a trial and civil rights lawyer, federal bankruptcy trustee and a receiver for the Securities Exchange Commission. He is currently director the Clemente Course for the Humanities, teaching humanities to underprivileged people in Harlem.

CONTENTS: Vajra Rosary Tantra
Series Editor's Preface			xv
Author's Preface/Acknowledgments			xvii
Abbreviations			xxi
Typographical Conventions			xxiii
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
Prologue			3
The Legendary Origin of the Vajra Rosary			6
The Historical Setting of the Tibetan Vajra Rosary			9
	Yeshe O, Rinchen Zangpo, and Atisha in Western Tibet		9
	Zhiwa O		11
	Mantrakalasha		15
Translations of the Vajra Rosary			16
Alamkakalasha, Tengpa Lotsawa, and Alamka's Commentary			18
The Vajra Rosary as an Evolving Text			21
The Teachings of the Vajra Rosary and Alamka's Commentary			23
	1.	The Setting and the Eighty-Two Questions	23
	2.	The Guru-Disciple Relationship	26
	3.	The Meaning of "Vajra Rosary" and "Esoteric Community"	27
	4.	Nonconceptuality	28
	5.	The Four Consecrations and Tantric Consort Yoga	30
	6.	Hermeneutics Within the Vajra Rosary	34
	7.	The Four Ecstasies and the Four moments	42
	8.	Secrecy	44
	9.	The 108 Energy-Winds and Corresponding Conceptualities	44
	10.	Overcoming the Conceptual Energies	50
	11.	Engagement of the Senses in the Tantric Way	55
	12.	Emptiness in the Vajra Rosary Yogic System	55
	13.	Great Bliss and Its Relation to Emptiness	58
	14.	The Yoga of Vajra Recitation and Opening the Heart Knot	59
	15.	Sound and Mantra	64
	16.	The Three Drops, Three Nose Tips, and Three Main Channels	67
	17.	Yogic Time	70
	18.	Birth and Death from the Subtle Body Perspective	72
	19.	The Chakras and the Channels	74
	20.	The Buddha Clans	79
	21.	The Body Mandala	79
	22.	The Three Luminances	81
	23.	Etymology as Esoteric Instruction	83
	24.	The Five Stages and (Two Systems of) Six Yogas of the Perfection Stage	88
	25.	The Forty-Nine and the Six Yogas of the Creation Stage and the Twenty Rituals	97
	26.	The Inner Offering	101
	27.	Peaceful and Terrifying Activities	103
	28.	The Conclusion of the Tantra	104
PART TWO: ANNOTATED ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Title Page			109
	1.	The Setting of the Tantra: Invocation, Questions, and Activities of the Students, etc.	111
	2.	On the Examination of the Teacher and Student, and on Consecration	121
	3.	Analyzing the Name "Vajra Rosary"	127
	4.	The Special Elucidation of the Word "Community"	133
	5.	The Teaching of the Meaning of Emptiness	135
	6.	The Opening of the Drop and Achieving the Supreme Yoga	139
	7.	The Explanation of the Word "Nada"	149
	8.	The Complete Demonstration of the Provision of the Great Secret	151
	9.	Defining the Word "Vow"	153
	10.	Determining the Meaning of the Commitment	157
	11.	Determining the Meaning of Mere Sound	161
	12.	Explaining the Reality of Energy	165
	13.	Explaining the Term "Great Bliss"	171
	14.	Explaining the Union of the Vajra and the Lotus	177
	15.	Explaining the Reality of Mantra	181
	16.	Teaching the Process of Counting the Energies	187
	17.	Situating the Channel Chakras	195
	18.	Summary of the Channels of the Yogic Body	201
	19.	Detailed Explanation of the Characteristics of the Movements	205
	20.	Analyzing the Characteristics of Ecstacy	207
	21.	Analyzing the Three Drops	211
	22.	Explaining the Essence of the Three Bodies	215
	23.	Determining the Commitment of the Three Realities	223
	24.	Determining the Three Nose Tips	231
	25.	Teaching the Words of Emptiness	237
	26.	Defining the Divine Intuition Body	241
	27.	Setting Forth the Goddesses in the Order of the Four Chakras	243
	28.	Arising and Disappearing	249
	29.	Producing Ecstasy	251
	30.	The Armor Defining the Down-Flowing Channels	253
	31.	Ascertaining the Three Intermediate Channels	257
	32.	Taking Birth as a Person Made of Energy	261
	33.	The Consumption of Vitality by the Process of the Energies	265
	34.	The Gathering of the Dakinis	269
	35.	Cutting Off the Conceptual Energies	271
	36.	The Characteristics of Nonconceptuality	273
	37.	Practicing the Disappearance of the Channels	275
	38.	Meditating on the Six Chakras	277
	39.	Time and the Measure of Time	281
	40.	The Fruit of the Secret	283
	41.	Explaining the Meaning of the Reality Realm	285
	42.	The Explanation of Vajra	287
	43.	Summarizing the Meanings of the Various Families	289
	44.	The Detailed Analysis of the Seal	291
	45.	The Aggregates, the Sense Media, Etc.	295
	46.	Ascertaining the Meaning of the Great Seal	297
	47.	The Analysis of Experiences	299
	48.	The Meaning of the Word "AHAM"	301
	49.	Analyzing the Characteristics of Emptiness	303
	50.	The Character Creating Vajra Rosary Emptiness	307
	51.	Explaining Night and Day in Detail	309
	52.	Explaining the Vowels and Consonants in Detail	311
	53.	Explaining Twilight in Detail	313
	54.	The Extensive Actions of the Twenty Rituals	315
	55.	Teaching the Reason for and the Result of the Twenty Rituals	343
	56.	Analyzing the Ritual of the Inner Essence Offering	345
	57.	The Character of the Goddess	349
	58.	Teaching the First Word, "EVAM," and Its Reasoning	351
	59.	Explaining the First Words, "EVAM MAYA"	353
	60.	The Internal-Natured Fire Offering	361
	61.	The Ritual of Drinking the Five Elixirs	363
	62.	The Communal Circle Rite--Mingling with the Yoginis	367
	63.	The Explanation of the Secret Words	375
	64.	The Mandala of Body, Speech, and Mind	379
	65.	Defining "Buddha," "Holy Dharma," "Sangha," Etc.	383
	66.	Teaching the Results of the Actions of Peace, Etc.	387
	67.	The Eight Attainments of Fierce and Peaceful Recitations, Etc.	389
	68.	The Epitome of All Attainments.	395
	Colophon		407
APPENDIX, GLOSSARIES, BIBLIOGRAPHIES, ENDNOTES, AND INDEXES
Appendix
	The 108 Energy-Winds and Conceptualities		411
Glossaries
	English-Tibetan Glossary		435
	Tibetan-English Glossary		449
Endnotes			461
Selected Bibliographies
	Modern Sources		611
	Sutras and Tantras		622
	Other Sanskrit and Tibetan Sources		624
Indexes
	Index of Canonical Authors Cited		629
	Index of Canonical Texts Cited		631
	General Index		633