Mountain Dharma - by David M Divalerio

About the Book

A groundbreaking exploration of individual long-term meditative retreat in Tibetan Buddhism, Mountain Dharma tracks developments in ascetic discourse and practice from the twelfth century to the twentieth.

Book Synopsis

An emphasis on practicing meditation in yearslong retreats--whether in a cave or a cloister, alone or with a small number of peers--has been a defining feature of Tibetan Buddhism throughout its entire history. Although the life stories and writings of the Himalaya's most famous hermits are well known, the history of this tradition and the details of its practice have largely remained a mystery.

A groundbreaking exploration of individual long-term meditative retreat in Tibetan Buddhism, Mountain Dharma tracks developments in ascetic discourse and practice from the twelfth century to the twentieth. David M. DiValerio provides a comprehensive reading of texts that offer instruction on the eremitic endeavor, comparing how dozens of authors have treated six key orienting concerns: place, people, food, sources of danger, the spiritual lineage, and time. The book traces a genealogy of the Tibetan ascetic self, demonstrating an increasing tendency to adopt practices that contrast the meditator with earlier generations of enlightened masters, defining the latter-day retreatant as a being in time. By viewing instructions for how to live in retreat as technologies of self, this book sheds new light on how the history of this tradition has been driven by evolving notions of personhood.

Methodologically innovative and richly sourced, Mountain Dharma sets a new standard for the historical study of asceticism.

Review Quotes

David DiValerio's Mountain Dharma is a fantastic book that breaks new ground in the study of the history of Tibetan asceticism and retreat practice. Theoretically sophisticated yet accessible, his analysis highlights the normative ways of self-cultivation enacted by Tibetan ascetics for centuries and up to the present. It is an excellent and indispensable addition to the global history of meditation traditions.--David McMahan, author of Rethinking Meditation: Buddhist Meditative Practices in Ancient and Modern Worlds

This finely observed study draws on a set of outstanding primers written for Tibetan retreatants themselves. Little known in modern scholarship, these works are filled with fascinating detail on how to live in retreat, discern the optimal natural setting, deal with other people, eat, connect to a glorious heritage, and manage the many psychological challenges. In this systematic overview, DiValerio keeps his eye on the ways that retreat was understood to positively shape persons, rather than being an exercise in negative self-denial.--Janet Gyatso, author of Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary

In this deeply engaging and well written work, David DiValerio takes us on a journey into Tibetan Buddhist meditation and ascetic practice, showing the path of the individual ascetic. This is a very important book for all who wish to understand the ascetic impulse generally and how this has been articulated in the history of Tibetan Buddhism.--Gavin Flood, author of The Ascetic Self: Subjectivity, Memory and Tradition

A truly landmark contribution on asceticism in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. DiValerio reveals core concerns defining the practice of meditating long-term in solitary retreat, and how profound interior probing of selfhood in high Tibetan and Himalayan fastness was always guided by an intensely prescriptive and didactic tradition.--Toni Huber, author of The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet

About the Author

David M. DiValerio is associate professor of history and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the author of The Holy Madmen of Tibet (2015) and translator of The Life of the Madman of Ü (2016).