Tantra/temp

Tantra (Sanskrit: "weave"), or tantricism is any of several esoteric traditions rooted in the religions of India. It exists in Hindu, Bönpo, Buddhist, and Jain forms. Tantra in its various forms has existed in Southern and Eastern Asia, including India, China, Tibet and Nepal, Cambodia, Indonesia and various other countries of the region. David Gordon White, while cautioning us about attempting a rigorous definition of what is a protean and highly variable practise, offers the following working definition:

"Tantra is that Asian body of beliefs and practices which, working from the principle that the universe we experience is nothing other than the concrete manifestation of the divine energy of the godhead that creates and maintains that universe, seeks to ritually appropriate and channel that energy, within the human microcosm, in creative and emancipatory ways."

In the west Tantra had originally been reviled by early European Orientalists as a subversive, antisocial, licentious and immoral force that had corrupted classical Hinduism. On the other hand many today see it as a celebration of social equity, sexuality, feminism and the body.

Overview

Rather than a coherent system, Tantra is an accumulation of practises and ideas, which has among its characteristics the use of ritual, the manipulation of energy, transgressional acts, the use of the mundane to access the supramundane and the identification of the microcosm with the macrocosm. The Tantric practioner seeks to utilise the divine power that flows through the universe (including his own body), in order to attain his goals. These goals may be spiritual, material or both.

The guidance of a Guru in this process is considered imperative. In the process of manipulating energy the Tantric has various tools at his disposal. These include yoga - bodily control to actuate processes that will connect him with the divine. Also important are the use of visualisation of the deity and verbalisation through mantras - which can be construed as seeing and speaking the power into being; identification and internalisation of the divine is performed - commonly through a total identification with a deity, such that the aspirant 'becomes' the deity.

Ritualized [...] is sometimes undertaken in Tantric practise and it is this aspect that has been the subject of almost exclusive and intense emphasis in the modern west. This accounts for tantra's negative reputation in some quarters, and its reception in the Western world primarily as a collection of [...] practices.

Concept of God

Shiva and Shakti

Tantra in practice

Gurus and adepts

Kings and priests

Devotees and deities

Traditions in transition and conflict

Tantric paths

Rites and techniques

[...] rites

According to Tantra one can go beyond the [...] plane of existence only by accepting it fully, utilising it and spiritualising ones innate [...] tendencies towards greater awareness. Several approaches are recognised as a way of conditioning aspirants prior to [...] meditation. Individual proclivties and spiritual achievement are taken into account by the guru from whom such training is sought. The path is usually considered appropriate only for certain individuals whose temperament and self control will enable them to forego [...] indulgence — a necessity, if the act is to serve as a tool to transcend identification with the mortal body. As with other tantric practices the presence of a guru is said to be a paramount and essential condition.

When done successfully as enjoined by the tantras it will culminate in an experience of infinite awareness. The Tantric texts specify that [...] has three distinct and separate purposes — procreation, pleasure and liberation. Frictional [...] is eschewed by those seeking liberation for a higher form of [...], as the couples are locked in a static embrace. Several [...] rituals are recommended and practised. These involve elaborate and meticulous preparatory and purificatory rites. The act results in a balancing of ida and pingala energies in both participants. the sushumna nadi is awakened and kundalini rises up, resulting in an awesome cosmic awareness in which all residual individuality is completely disintegrated in the stream of samadhi consciousness. The act itself has several depths of meaning: the male and female partcipants are joined physically, representing Shiva and Shakti, the male and female principles. The act results in the subtle fusion of Shiva and Shakti energies resulting in an undivided energy field. In addition each participant expriences a fusion of their own Shiva and Shakti energies.

Yoga and meditation

See also

  • Guru-shishya tradition
  • Neotantra
  • Sampradaya
  • Tantras
  • Vajrayana

References

  • Harper, Katherine Anne (ed.), Robert L. Brown (ed.) (2002). The Roots of Tantra. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-5306-5
  • Mahendranath, Shri Gurudev (1990). The Scrolls of Mahendranath. Seattle: International Nath Order.
  • Saraswati, Swami Satyananda (2000). Sure Ways to Self Realization, Yoga Publications Trust.
  • Urban, Hugh (2002). "The Conservative Character of Tantra: Secrecy, Sacrifice and This-Worldly Power in Bengali Śākta Tantra", International Journal of Tantric Studies, Vol 6, No. 1.
  • White, David Gordon (ed.) (2000). Tantra in Practice. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05779-6
  • Woodroffe, John (1959). Sakti and Sakta, Ganesh and Co.

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