By Mark Hawthorne
SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE

Evocative and richly detailed, "Arousing the Goddess: Sex and Love in the Buddhist Ruins of India" (242 pages, $16.95) is a vivid portrait of India, engaging in moments of true spiritual discovery one moment while gleefully revealing the absurdities of Indian travel the next.

This is the third book from best-selling Canadian author Tim Ward and completes the nonfiction Buddhist trilogy he began with "What the Buddha Never Taught" and followed with "The Great Dragon's Fleas."

After earning his philosophy degree, Ward left for Asia in the 1980s, staying in ashrams and monasteries as he traveled through India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, China and Tibet. Strongly influenced by Buddhism, he saw the dharma as a way to help him cope with the challenges of life and travel. While his earlier books focus on the Theravada and Mahayana schools of Buddhism, tantra is the heart of Ward's latest narrative. In it he explores his intense physical and emotional sensations and the various facets of a practice with roots in both Buddhism and Hinduism.

Many Westerners equate tantra with eroticism, but Ward explains it's a path developed from yoga, meditation and goddess cults. The goal of tantra is to use energy for spiritual development.

Not that Ward is looking for anything sacred when he meets Sabina, a beautiful Austrian Indologist working on her thesis. Ward becomes Sabina's research assistant, and the two explore temples and museums in search of Buddha-touching-the-Earth statues, which depict a seated Buddha touching the ground with his right hand. The gesture symbolizes the Buddha's enlightenment as he triumphs over Mara (the Great Tempter of Buddhism) and calls upon the Earth goddess herself to witness his awakening - a tableau that leads Ward to posit there is a feminine divine at the core of Buddhism.

Tim and Sabina fall in love, and the Earth-touching Buddha nicely complements Ward's own discoveries as he ponders the divergent paths of Tantric sexual ecstasy versus the monastic denial and detachment and has held dear.

The author is surprisingly bold, especially when acknowledging his dark side, but Sabina's secretive and often-frosty attitude does not endear her to the reader. We're never sure what lies beneath her manic exterior as she keeps Ward at bay with the same arm in which she later holds him; she remains the elusive siren many men are drawn to but never truly know.

Though highly intimate, Ward's descriptions of romantic interludes are handled with a poetic restraint that underscores the spiritual development he undergoes. He offers enough background to add depth to his tale and skillfully brings sensory stimuli to life: The smells, sounds and flavors of India are often more remarkable - and palatable - than anything visual.

This is a courageous travel memoir that reminds us that illumination often comes not through following a course of piety, but from confronting our demons.

Tim Ward shows slides and signs his latest book:

7 p.m. Thursday. Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande Blvd. N.W. 344-8139.

5:30 p.m. March 26. The Ark New Age Books, 133 Romero St. Santa Fe. (505) 988-3709

2 p.m. March 27. University of New Mexico Bookstore, 2301 Central Ave. N.E. 277-9752.

7 p.m. March 27. Page One Bookstore and Newsstand, 11018 Montgomery Blvd. N.E. 294-2026.

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