Sharp Practice by Robert Fitzgerald

Trade paperback format, a slender volume.

Ritual daggers have long been vital accoutrements in the exercise of magic and sorcery. As a means of subduing demonic forces, their power of transfixion has long been a feature in rites of great ritual power. In India and Tibet, they are the center of a vast and ancient spiritual lineage of devotees, who use the dagger or phurba as a means of both exorcism and enlightenment. Sharp Practice is an exposition upon 'Dagger as Deity' within Bön and Vajrayana Buddhism, and delineates the evolution of the Phurba as a ritual weapon. Examining its deific essence, as well as its iconography, the book concludes with a rite dedicated to the Three Jewels, inspired by each tradition.