Desire: The Tantric Path to Awakening

The old saw in Buddhism is that desire is the noxious weed that keeps us lurching from one unsatisfactory pleasure to the next, and that uprooting it is the only way to liberation. Daniel Odier, a scholar and teacher of tantra, turns this wisdom on its head in Desire: The Tantric Path to Awakening, saying that desire is the only true path to liberation. Odier objects to any religion that pretends to offer liberation in any form other than simple, personal experience. Stemming from the Tibetan master Kalu Rinpoche and the Kashmiri Shaivite yogini Lalita Devi, Odier's tantrism focuses on "micropractices," conscious withdrawal from habitual activities for just a few seconds several times a day. The crux is to attain consciousness, presence--and beyond this, there is no goal. For when there is eventually presence in every activity, the luminosity of existence pervades everything. At this point, the smallest things give pleasure. Gross desires fall away, to be replaced by spontaneous desires arising in a life of grace and joy. Odier's Desire is a challenge and a pleasure to all who feel constricted by ordinary religious practice. --Brian Bruya