Conserving the ‘Container’ of Tantric Secrecy: A Discussion with Western Śākta Practitioners

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper is clearly written and well-documented.  It argues against the common academic views of secrecy in tantra that associates it with power and hierarchy.  Instead, the paper emphasizes the concerns of practitioners for both devotees and outsiders.  It emphasizes the importance of ethnography, which is relatively new area in tantric studies.

I see no major errors.  Though there are a few issues that might be further discussed:

The writer has interviewed only twelve practitioners out of a group of hundreds.  Why were these people chosen?  Do they make up a representative sample?  It seems a rather small one.

The topic of Vajrayana Buddhism has been brought up several times, but these references do not add to this paper.  The writer needs to either say something more about it, or leave it out.  Just saying that she is also doing research in another area is not relevant unless there is a specific comparison that is claimed, or more data is given.

The writers on secrecy cited seem to divide by gender, with male writers mostly emphasizing power and hierarchy, and female writers mostly emphasizing concern and empathy.  Is this just a coincidence, or might there be some gender influence on ethnographic research?

Other minor details- there is no word for 'hand' in vamacara or vamamarga.  The terms 'left-hand' and 'right-hand' (as in paths) are rarely used today because they are a poor translation.  Acara and marga are closer to laws, norms, or practices.

line. 89- whom should be who

line. 673- climatic?  as in climate?

Otherwise, the paper is fine.

Author Response

Thank you for your feedback, it is very much appreciated.

Re: The writer has interviewed only twelve practitioners out of a group of hundreds.  Why were these people chosen?  Do they make up a representative sample?  It seems a rather small one.

Answer: The research project is anthropological and qualitative, meaning that it does not seek by any means to contribute quantitative / measurable data, but simply to provide examples of overlooked possibilities. Despite three of the participants being more atheistic and agnostic in their leaning compared to the others, their views regarding secrecy were consistently similar and often the same as their peers, and I don’t expect there would have been a lot more variation, given that they are all taught by the same teacher. These twelve practitioners volunteered to participate and I will modify the article to make that clear. They were not selected. Amazzone shared my call for participants with all of her students, which stated that to qualify for the interviews, one must be willing to discuss how deity yoga has transformed one’s manner of relating to self, world, and others. This is mentioned in my introduction. Two additional practitioners stepped forward, but for their own reasons, were not available to be interviewed after all. There is surely a plethora of reasons why nobody else volunteered, some of which are related to some of the issues I bring up in the article. So, within the time restraints of the project and the article deadline, this is all that was possible. The actual project in its full breadth involves Sakta practitioners from other lineages, and just as many Vajrayana Buddhist practitioners. The total number of participants is deemed by my supervisor to be more than sufficient for an ethnographic study and while most interviews lasted 2-3 hours, some involved multiple sessions that totalled at 6-9 hours. So, despite the small sample size, the interviews have yielded a lot of data. For the sake of contributing a concise article, I chose to focus on only Amazzone’s group. Until now, I have not had the time to complete all of my transcriptions or to handle the data of my other participants. The project is ongoing. I have edited the sentence in the conclusion that states “twelve out of hundreds”, as following this review, I asked Amazzone if she could provide a more exact number that might make the discrepancy in sample size seem less severe. Although she has taught hundreds and has private clients, she told me to indicate that there are approximately sixty that are currently actively and consistently engaged in the kula itself. She considers such specific information to be prying into matters that are her own business, which is why I was not previously more accurate about it. 

Re: The topic of Vajrayana Buddhism has been brought up several times, but these references do not add to this paper.  The writer needs to either say something more about it, or leave it out.  Just saying that she is also doing research in another area is not relevant unless there is a specific comparison that is claimed, or more data is given.

Answer: It is not in another area that I am doing research, it is part of the same research project, which is indeed comparative. My Vajrayana Buddhist participants were the first to be interviewed, with the same set of questions. I will modify the article to make this clearer. Therefore, I do find it relevant and worth mentioning, as those who seek to engage in research that is similar to mine might benefit from some of the comparisons/ similarities that I do point out for example in section 2, even if they are just small hints/direction-pointers compared to what I will present in the future about it.  

Re: The writers on secrecy cited seem to divide by gender, with male writers mostly emphasizing power and hierarchy, and female writers mostly emphasizing concern and empathy.  Is this just a coincidence, or might there be some gender influence on ethnographic research?

Answer: That’s an interesting observation and something that I had not noticed, but I do not believe that Urban or Timalsina have conducted ethnographic research. The arguments of the works that I cite by them are based on what can be gleaned from tantric scriptures, while those directed at Western tantra are based on stereotypical examples of how it’s been commodified. Brooks is the only example in my article of a male writer who has been initiated into Śrīvidyā and could thus speak from an emic perspective, but it is not surprising that he emphasizes hierarchy and power because that is how things actually often are within the highly Brahmanical context that he immersed himself in. It seems rather that as section five of my article describes, male scholars have privileged male sources of information (be that unintentionally or not), such as textual sources written by and for men, while female scholars/ethnographers have sought out marginal, female voices and gained the trust of female informants in a way that male ethnographers might struggle to. However, Dempsey’s ethnography is focused on a male guru, and it is he himself, in following the footsteps of his own guru, who has decided to go against the grain of Brahmanical orthodoxy by overthrowing all conventions of hierarchy and making the practices accessible to everyone. It is he himself who expresses concern and empathy, which provides an example of how Indian socio-cultural values are changing. It was not my intention to focus on a female-only group of practitioners, but was simply the only avenue that opened itself up to me when it came to finding willing informants among tantric practitioners from a Hindu stream, within my time restraints. When I begin handling the data I collected from my Buddhist participants, whom consist of both males and females, I will pay attention to whether their views are divided in any sense along the lines of hierarchy/power vs. empathy/concern. To be honest though, gender is far from being a focus of mine and I am not familiar with any of the literature related to it. Since it is a concern and matter of importance to my participants, I did what I could to represent that.

Re: Other minor details- there is no word for 'hand' in vamacara or vamamarga.  The terms 'left-hand' and 'right-hand' (as in paths) are rarely used today because they are a poor translation.  Acara and marga are closer to laws, norms, or practices.

Answer: Thank you, I had gone back and forth removing it, adding it back, felt myself tossed between how different sources translate it, and wasn’t sure anymore. It did strike me as an outdated projection of terms normally applied to Western esotericism/occultism. I left it this way hoping the reviewer could clarify this for me :)

Re: line. 89- whom should be who
Answer: Noted and fixed.

Re: line. 673- climatic?  as in climate?
Answer: thank you for pointing that out, I meant climactic ;)

Reviewer 2 Report

This is an excellent article, well written and interesting. The author's observations on contemporary tantric practice and secrecy are novel and insightful. I have no suggestions for improvement and recommend publishing as is. 

Author Response

Thank you for your positive feedback, it is very appreciated.