"Riveting, informed and adventurous, Yaroslav Komarovski's reflections on mystical practice and polemic in Tibet makes a distinctive and important contribution to the study of Tibetan mysticism as well as mysticism across cultures. Drawing on contemplative and philosophical texts, he brings classical Tibetan voices right into contemporary Western debates on mysticism, especially regarding the possibility of unmediated experience. Never reductive, always rigorous and dynamically engaged, this book offers genuinely new insights for Buddhists, Buddhist scholars, and researchers on the cross-cultural dynamics within and between religious-mystical trajectories." --Anne Carolyn Klein, Rice University and Dawn Mountain, Translator/Compiler of
Strand of Jewels: My Teachers' Essential Guidance on Dzogchen by Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche
"It is hard to write about mystical experience. One must talk about the ineffable and confront a complex debate regarding the possibility of doing so. It is also hard to write about Tibetan literature on non-conceptual experience and direct realization. It requires sophisticated philological skills and mastery of a difficult literature. Komarovski succeeds admirably in these tasks, explaining Tibetan debates regarding unmediated experience with great clarity, in conversation with contemporary theory." --Jay L Garfield, Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor of Humanities, Yale-NUS College
"Komarovski's treatment of the Tibetan Buddhist materials is methodical and intelligent, his presentation of scholarship on the Geluk and Sakya schools enhanced by an exceptionally clear prose style. "-- L. Harrington,
CHOICE "This book triumphs in bringing Tibetan Buddhism s rigorous attention on the ineffable to the wider study of mystical experience. It is a must-read for anyone interested in mysticism in general, not to mention scholars and students of Tibetan Buddhism." --
Religious Studies Review