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Essays

The Tibetan Book of the Undead

Vampires (or zombies—vetalas/vetalis/rolangs) play a key role in early Buddhist Tantra.

October 22nd, 2009

Disgust as Buddhist practice

Buddhist tantra transforms negative emotions into wisdom. Disgust is the easiest and safest to work with.

May 13th, 2010

We are all monsters

An essay series

We are all monsters, because we fail to fit fixed concepts of what counts as human.

June 10th, 2010

Eating the shadow

Eating the shadow means incorporating aspects of reality that you have rejected because they seem monstrous—unacceptable.

July 2nd, 2010

Romancing the shadow

Jung's “shadow,” and Robert Bly’s monstrous interpretation of it, resonate with Buddhist Tantra; but Romanticism obstructs a translation.

February 27th, 2017

Hunting the shadow

To discover your shadow qualities you have hidden from yourself, you must go hunting on the path of attention.

February 28th, 2017

Absorb your shadow

Absorbing your shadow means embracing your monstrous power while cultivating your human nobility.

March 1st, 2017

Drinking the sun

Integrating monstrous aspects of experience, that you have rejected, frees energy for creativity and play—and is the path to nobility.

March 1st, 2017

On monsters

Stephen T. Asma's book On Monsters is a project parallel in some ways to Buddhism for Vampires. A brief review.

June 12th, 2010

Next time you die

"Next time you die, pay attention" is the essence of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

August 5th, 2010

Buddhists who kill

Some versions of Buddhism say that it is right to kill human beings when that is necessary to prevent a greater disaster.

August 11th, 2010

Love in a time of war

Buddhist Inner Tantra emerged in a time of social collapse, political chaos, and forced change.

August 18th, 2010

Dakinis

Dakinis were fearsome witches who ate human flesh. They were also the enlightened goddesses who made tantric Buddhism available to humankind.

May 17th, 2011

Tantra, sex, and romance novels

As in romance novels, Buddhist sexual practice (karmamudra) becomes meaningful only in context: the Tantric world-view.

July 29th, 2011

You, being meat

We are meat. That is the human predicament—but it is not without compensations.

November 20th, 2011

Dharmakirti (and Panini)

An edible epistemologist and the first formal system. An Indian philosopher, not an Italian sandwich.

January 25th, 2012

Making a kangling for chöd

An illustrated guide to making a human thigh-bone trumpet, plus some explanation of its use.

May 6th, 2012

The Buddha and the necrophiliac witch

Scripture, a sub-genre of fantasy fiction, offers a choice of heroes—and heroines.

October 2nd, 2012

A philosophical zombie

Zombies play important roles in both Western and Buddhist philosophy of mind.

December 22nd, 2012

Can we hunt p-zombies with fMRI?

An experiment that might explain metaphysical disagreement, zombies, consciousness, and Daniel Dennett.

December 28th, 2012

Dark culture and tantric transformation

An essay series

Black magic as liberating transformation and as art.

February 18th, 2013

What makes magic “black”?

Defining black magic; dispelling confusions. Black magic is whatever social consensus, or authority, considers taboo.

February 18th, 2013

Black magic, transformation, and power

“Black magic” can be liberating in the real (non-magical) world, if you have been brought up in an excessively narrow moral code.

February 18th, 2013

Black magic and meaningness

Dark culture and black magic are ways of working through the emotional implications of nihilism—the discovery that the universe is monstrous.

February 18th, 2013

Dark culture: black magic as art and play

Dark culture demonstrates that beauty, love, and freedom can be found in the midst of the nightmare.

February 18th, 2013

Lovecraft, Speculative Realism, and silly nihilism

How understanding why nihilism became silly may improve your attitude to life considerably.

May 23rd, 2013

Meeting Naropa’s dakini

In which I meet a terrifying goddess at Starbucks.

October 30th, 2020

Copyright © 2010-2023 David Chapman. Some links are part of the Amazon Associates Program.