Coda and counterpoint

This essay responds to several of the issues raised by the various review essays on the author's book, Semiotics of Religion: Signs of the Sacred in History, while simultaneously offering some observations on the nature, current state, and future prospects of the semiotics of religion; on the explanatory ambitions and methodological limitations of this field; and on the location of semiotics in the human sciences and in historical and cultural studies, as distinguished from universalizing or Cartesian approaches.     

Transforming Consciousness

Robert Preece’s The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra and Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s Everyday Consciousness and Primordial Awareness are reviewed. Both books address Tibetan Buddhism, and their common threads underscore this discussion. Even when separated from their original contexts, the Tibetan Buddhist teachings offer understandings about a common human nature and a method of transforming consciousness through awareness.