Mountain Dharma

Meditative Retreat and the Tibetan Ascetic Self

David M. DiValerio

$232.95

Hardback

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English

Columbia University Press
23 September 2025

History of religion; Buddhist life & practice; Tibetan Buddhism; Popular psychology; Mind, body, spirit: meditation & visualisation

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.

By: David M. DiValerio
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780231220217
ISBN 10: 0231220219
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 23 September 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Prescriptive Literature for Individual Retreat 2. Locating the Ascetic Self 3. Isolating the Ascetic Self 4. Nourishing the Ascetic Self 5. Preserving the Ascetic Self 6. Forming the Ascetic Self 7. The Tibetan Ascetic Self in Time Conclusion Appendix. Prescriptive Texts for Individual Retreat Notes Works Cited Index

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).

Reviews for Mountain Dharma: Meditative Retreat and the Tibetan Ascetic Self

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 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 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 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