Ryan Damron

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Short Biography

After nine years living in and traveling around the greater Indian Sub-Continent, Ryan has returned to the States and embarked on the long road to a PhD in South Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. When not buried under a pile of books, he can be spotted among the redwoods of Northern California or wandering the alpine regions of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges.

Current Studies

  • The doctrine of sahaja (spontaneity, naturalness) among Buddhist, Vaiṣṇava and unaffiliated tantric groups in pre-modern and modern South Asia
  • The deliberate cultivation of the power transgression as a religious practice, specifically within South Asian tantric traditions
  • Tantric works composed in Sanskrit, various Prākrits and Tibetan

Current Projects

  • A study and translation the Mahāmāyātantra and its commentary, the Guṇavatīṭīkā by Ratnākaraśānti

Published Works

  • Mahāmāyātantra, as part of the 84000 translation intiative (forthcoming)

Contact

rdamron@berkeley.edu