The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra Book Review

"British psychologist and longtime Tibetan Buddhist practitioner Rob Preece has given us one of the most illuminating unpackings of Tibetan tantra yet to emerge in the English language, in his recently published The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra. Tantra, shows Preece, using the psychological language of Carl Jung as an intermediary, exists in the liminal space, at the boundary between conventional and ultimate realities. It is a vehicle for negotiating the interface of the two, to help us see how the two truths of conventional and ultimate reality are really one. Preece makes clear from the start of his book that the practice of tantra is predicated upon a stable enough sense of self. He quotes the great Tibetan tantric practitioner Milarepa as saying, "It is easy to meditate upon the sky, but not so easy to meditate upon the clouds." Interpreting this statement for us, Preece proposes that Milarepa means it is easy to understand the spacious quality of emptiness but difficult to work with emotions or to understand how conventional forms, like the ego, exist.

"The compelling thing about the tantric path, as Preece describes it, is that it makes direct use of the very instinctual and emotional energies that the conventional self&151;so often ignored or derided in Buddhist circles&151;is built upon. By situating the meditative vehicle of the deity at the threshold between conventional and ultimate realities, the tantric path endeavors to transform emotional energies, not by acting them out or by repressing them, but by recruiting them into the subjective expanse of meditative awareness.

"In his beautiful descriptions of the psychology of Buddhist tantra, Preece lays out how comprehensively the tantric path seeks to remember the vital point that Philip Kapleau was brave enough to articulate: "Continuous training after enlightenment is required to purify the emotions so that our behavior corresponds with our understanding."—Mark Epstein, author, Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective