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BOOKS IN BRIEF | EASTERN HORIZON 59

BOOKS IN BRIEF

Shambhala Publications, Inc.
(including Snow Lion, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc)
4720 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80301-2670, USA
www.shambhala.com

Epic of the Buddha. His Life and Teachings. Chittadhar Seeing the Sacred in Samsara. An Illustrated Guide to the
Hrdaya. 2019. pp 448. US$24.95. Eighty-Four Mahāsiddhas. Donald Lopez, Jr. 2019. pp 232.
US$29.95.
This award-winning book contains the English translation
of Sugata Saurabha (“The Sweet Fragrance of the This exquisite full-color presentation of the lives of the
Buddha”), an epic poem on the life and teachings of the eighty-four mahāsiddhas, or “great accomplished ones,”
Buddha. Chittadhar Hṛdaya, a master poet from Nepal, offers a fresh glimpse into the world of the famous tantric
wrote this tour de force while imprisoned for subversion yogis of medieval India. The stories of these tantric saints
in the 1940s and smuggled it out over time on scraps have captured the imagination of Buddhists across Asia
of paper. His consummate skill and poetic artistry are for nearly a millennium. Unlike monks and nuns who
evident throughout as he tells the Buddha’s story in renounce the world, these saints sought the sacred in
dramatic terms, drawing on images from the natural the midst of saṃsāra. Some were simple peasants who
world to heighten the description of emotionally charged meditated while doing manual labor. Others were kings
events. It is peopled with very human characters who and queens who traded the comfort and riches of the
experience a wide range of emotions, from erotic love palace for the danger and transgression of the charnel
to anger, jealousy, heroism, compassion, and goodwill. ground. Still others were sinners—pimps, drunkards,
By showing how the central events of the Buddha’s life gamblers, and hunters—who transformed their sins into
are experienced by Siddhartha, as well as by his family sanctity.
members and various disciples, the poem communicates
a fuller sense of the humanity of everyone involved and This book includes striking depictions of each of the
the depth and power of the Buddha’s loving-kindness. EH mahāsiddhas by a master Tibetan painter, whose work
has been preserved in pristine condition. Published
here for the first time in its entirety, this collection
includes details of the painting elements along with the
life stories of the tantric saints, making this one of the
most comprehensive works available on the eighty-four
mahāsiddhas. EH