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Tantra 3

What is Real Tantra?

January 13, 2016 Uncategorizedgenuine tantra, real tantra, tantra, what is tantra
tantra shiva shakti

The word Tantra: is Sanskrit and literally means, “a continuum, or unbroken stream [of energy].”

The term Tantra refers first (1) to the continuum of vital energy that sustains all existence, and second (2) to the class of knowledge and practices that harnesses that vital energy, thereby transforming the practitioner.

Tantra is primarily known in two forms:

  • from India; related to Hinduism
  • from Tibet; related to Buddhism

 

Each have their own scriptures, schools, traditions, and practices, which vary widely. And, in spite of the opinions—and financial interests—of many people, the term Tantra is not immediately synonymous with sex, spiritual powers, or materialism.

For thousands of years the teachings of Tantra had been protected and isolated in order to preserve their purity and to protect the naive from harming themselves. Now that much of Tantra has been made public, it has been completely disfigured by the passions, desires, and ambitions of misguided people. The vast majority of teachings of Tantra have degenerated completely and are now dangerous. One should study extensively before taking on any teachings or practice of Tantra. This has been emphasized by all truly authentic traditions of Tantra:

Tantra yoga had been one of the potent powers for the spiritual regeneration of the Hindus. When practised by the ignorant, unenlightened, and unqualified persons, it has led to certain abuses; and there is no denying that some degraded forms of Saktism have sought nothing but magic, immorality, and occult powers. – Swami Sivananda

Genuine Tantra is an exceptional method of purifying the consciousness of all egotistical elements: lust, pride, envy, gluttony, laziness, etc., but it is not easy or accomplished overnight, and requires great temperance, intelligence, education, and dedication. Real Tantra depends completely on robust and perfect ethics.

[Buddha] Shakyamuni did not teach that people with loose ethics will succeed in Tantra. That is not the way leading to the city of nirvana. How could these evil churls succeed in Tantra? How could people with loose ethics go to the upper realms? They will not go to a high rebirth; they will not have supreme happiness. – The Manjushri Root Tantra

Success in Tantra is determined by the ethical discipline that leads up to it.

 

tantra sculpture

 

There are many varieties of Tantra, but they can be classified in three types: White, Grey and Black. These are differentiated by examination of the results they produce.

  • White Tantra: those schools that produce beings who are clean of all egotistical desire, anger, lust, envy, etc. Such beings are known as Buddhas, Masters, Angels, Devas, etc.
  • Grey Tantra: those schools who want to be White but do not renounce Black methods. They are caught in the middle.
  • Black Tantra: those schools that produce beings who sustain and develop the causes of suffering, namely lust, anger, greed, pride, etc. Such beings are called demons, sorcerers, Maruts, Asuras, etc.

 

This website is solely concerned with the scriptures and techniques belonging to White forms of Tantra.

Tantra has long been known in the West as Alchemy, and has also been present in the esoteric heart of every great religion. Study of this site will demonstrate that fact.

Why is Tantra misunderstood?

This is because one the most elevated aspects of tantrism has a special relationship to sexuality. In other words, while it does not form the totality of its content, the sexual act itself is a genuine aspect of tantrism.

Traditionally, Tantra was taught in secrecy, only to the disciples who advanced through rigorous training of the mind. A fundamental prerequisite would always be complete Chastity, something normal for any true monk or Nun. Reaching the stage of Tantra meant that one had mastered not only the foundational methods of spiritual discipline, but more advanced ones as well, and was prepared for the highest or most secret teaching. It is important to understand that, historically, the lay or ordinary people were never taught tantrism.

Why is Tantra necessary?

Sexual union provides a continuum of energy within the tantric practitioners which cannot be duplicated by any other means. This is why, without sexual union, certain types of spiritual realizations are impossible (see Solar Bodies). However, because sexual union is a tremendous area of temptation, such practices have always been forbidden by all but the most elevated students.

So, the real reason that sexual intercourse has its place within Tantra is that there is an authentic spiritual function to sexuality. Let us be clear though: desires such as lust do not have any place in spiritual pursuits.

All the functions of sex have an element of creation:

  1. Procreation: creation of physical bodies
  2. Pleasure: the creation of desire
  3. Psychogenesis: the creation of a spiritual nature

 

cosmos

 

We can see that the first two types are the only functions understood and experienced by the common man and woman. White Tantrism is the only form of tantrism that works exclusively with the third type as its goal.  We must also understand that it is not simply the physical union which is important, but the forces of love which must also be present.

Quotes about Tantra

“The Tantric student must be endowed with purity, faith, devotion, dedication to Guru, dispassion, humility, courage, cosmic love, truthfulness, non-covetousness, and contentment.” – Swami Sivananda

“The passions which bind may be so employed as to act as forces whereby the particular life of which they are the strongest manifestation is raised to the universal life. Passion, which has hitherto run downwards and outwards to waste, is directed inwards and upwards, and transformed to power.” – Mahanirvana Tantra

“In general, all systems of highest yoga Tantra’s completion stage involve the preliminary process of controlling the vital energies…” – Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism

“In the view of Tantra, the body’s vital energies are the vehicles of the mind. When the vital energies are pure and subtle, one’s state of mind will be accordingly affected. By transforming these bodily energies we transform the state of consciousness.” – The 14th Dalai Lama

 

 

 

 

 

Source: www.gnosticteachings.org

Tantra and its Misconceptions: Reclaiming the Essence from the Illusions

September 15, 2015 Uncategorizedchakras, kundalini, raja yoga, tantra, tantric knowledge, traditional tantra
mala

The Allure of Tantra

 

Perhaps nothing is more exotic, dramatic and sensational in India’s Yoga traditions than is the practice of Tantra. No other approach to Yoga has gained such a fascination for the modern mind and its seeking of the bizarre, the entertaining and the enigmatic.

Tantra appears to offer both spiritual and worldly success to a superlative degree. It covers not only internal yogic experiences of chakras, lokas and deities, but also has many important healing practices for body and mind. Most notably, it offers special means of heightening sexual pleasure, making money, gaining recognition and defeating one’s enemies – with Tantric methods available for achieving all human desires. There is in Tantra something for everyone, especially those who may be put off by ascetic or renunciate approaches to the spiritual life such as seem to dominate most of the rest of the Yoga tradition.

Yet behind this allure of Tantra are very deep and profound teachings, including some of the most vibrant currents and detailed practices in the Yoga tradition of the last thousand years or more. Though Tantra has much to offer everyone, we must learn to be discriminating as to what is real versus what is superficial Tantra or one can easily fall into its distortions, which are many and much more visible.

 

Tantra and Wish-Fulfillment

 

Even in India, Tantrics are often portrayed as great magicians with special powers to overcome difficulties and fulfill our desires, using gems, mantras, yantras and pujas to get the Gods on our side and remove negative forces and bad karmas that get in the way of our happiness. Such Tantrics may use well-defined systems of knowledge, particularly Vedic astrology but also Yoga and Ayurveda and be quite adept in their practices. But often their claim is more personal, relative to their own special powers or siddhis and connections with deities, gurus or even ghosts that can work for us in mysterious ways that circumvent any outer limitations we may be facing.

tantra sexSome Tantric gurus are considered to be so powerful that their touch or glance alone can grant whatever we wish. They offer us quick and miraculous means to accomplish what our own efforts, karma and destiny appear to deny us. Naturally, this Tantric guru image can be easily exploited. Such gurus can charge a lot for or demand our personal loyalty and devotion in various ways. Many Indian politicians have routinely employed such Tantrics, hoping to use their powers to win elections and defeat their enemies. This magical form of Tantra makes for entertaining stories and good novels, giving it an additional glamour and grounds for exaggeration.

Even genuine gurus may be looked upon with such a vision as being able to grant our desires, though they may not project any magical Tantric image themselves, so much is the human wish for Divine intervention to make our lives better and to have them conform more with what we would like them to be.

This fascination with Tantra is nothing new in human cultures. Tantra is another version of the same old attraction to magic, the occult and ritual that we find to some degree in all cultures and was very prominent in the ancient world everywhere. Ancient Vedic rituals, much like modern Tantric rituals, can similarly be employed for all the goals of human life from kama or enjoyment, to victory in battle, to moksha or liberation.

Such an effort to bend the cosmic powers to our human wishes occurs even in monotheistic religions. In western religions, prayer has been used in the same way to promote worldly or social well-being, like the Christian evangelicals in America performing prayers and church services for the reelection of George W. Bush.

Looking to God – whether in the formless sense, or in the form of various Gods and Goddesses, or saints and gurus – to fulfill our human desires is one of the first and most common ways of human religious seeking. The undeveloped human ego will naturally first approach God with its own needs, rather than for any real seeking of knowledge or devotion. Tantra provides one of the most elaborate ways of doing this and recognizes its value as a first step in getting people onto the spiritual path. Chanting mantras in order to increase our prosperity or find a good partner or any other such personal goal is part of that approach. There is nothing wrong with such practices, but they don’t represent the higher aspects of Tantra or Yoga.

 

Kundalini and the Chakras

 

Other aspects of Tantra have come to the West and can be found in modern India as well, but not without distortions either. The chakras are a common New Age topic, though these are often portrayed quite differently than in classical Yoga. The chakras, which are originally energy centers in the subtle body, are often reduced to a physical formula. They are not looked upon so much as centers of spiritual experience but as places of physical and emotional healing. Such chakra healing is common in many New Age approaches, including various forms of massage, body work, energy work and pranic healing. While these practices may have their health benefits, they do not unfold the deeper aspects of chakra energy in Yoga practice, which require intense sadhana, mantra, pranayama and meditation.

Meanwhile, Kundalini is generally reduced to some form of sexual energy, leading to strange emotional states and experiences. Or it is looked upon as some mere natural force to be used in a technological way. Its true nature as the power of consciousness is often overlooked.

This combination of New Age fantasies from the West and an innate Indian need for the magical Yogi has created much room for illusion and distortion, if not manipulation and deception. It causes us to miss the fact that Tantra in the broader sense is a deep, profound, highly spiritual and very aesthetic way of understanding the conscious universe in which we live. Real Tantra often gets buried under these glittering allures and exaggerated claims.

 

Broader Aspects of Tantra

 

Apart from these distortions, we must recognize that Tantra is a complex tradition, with many sides and facets going beyond and even contrary to these popular fantasies. Tantra is interwoven with the spiritual teachings of India and beyond, going back far into ancient history. The popular understanding of Tantra represents only a small part of a vast system of knowledge.

shivashaktiWe could compare the state of Tantra with that of Yoga, with which it is related. Like Tantra, the physical side of Yoga is emphasized – the practice of yogic postures or asanas – even though these represent a small part of classical Yoga, whose main concern is meditation. We live in a materialistic and media age in which spiritual traditions are recast or scaled down into a physical and sensationalistic model. This may popularize but it easily diminishes and distorts.

Such a sensate image of Tantra may cause some people to want to reject anything Tantric altogether. Certain spiritual groups East and West like to avoid Tantra for this reason. This is a mistake of another kind because it causes them to overlook the positive aspects of Tantra, its wealth of knowledge and practices about all the subtle aspects of Yoga, the worship of deities and how to harmonize actions in the human realm with the Divine worlds above.

The real question then is how to separate the deeper and higher aspects of Tantra from the outer and superficial views. Tantra is a precise system of knowledge that provides specific results and much inner transformation if employed correctly. The application of mantras, rituals, pranayama and meditation in Tantric teachings is probably the most elaborate and complete in the entire Yoga tradition. Tantra also shows us how to employ such systems as Vedic astrology, Vastu and Ayurveda for deeper levels of protection and healing, as well as to promote a higher awareness.

 

Tantra, Mantra and Yantra

 

It is in Tantra that we find the most detailed explication of the power of mantra, with every syllable of the Sanskrit alphabet precisely defined. It is the bija mantras of Tantra, the Shakti mantras like Hrim and Shrim, which are the most powerful of all mantras. Tantra similarly provides the greatest explanation of the use of yantras or geometrical meditation devices that are important tools of concentration and meditation. For example, the worship of Sri Chakra and Sri Yantra, probably the most important and detailed of all the Yoga teachings, is the most important Tantric teaching. The entire universe and the subtle body are present in the Sri Chakra. Its worship integrates the individual with all existence.

Tantra is a good tool for helping people of all traditions reclaim the worship of the Goddess and restore appropriate forms for her worship. As Christianity developed it rejected and condemned the common pagan worship of the Goddess that had long existed in the West. Western Tantra has added many other forms of Goddess worship in Pagan traditions from the Celts to the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Babylonians. Yet in these traditions forms of worship, both external and internal, have largely been lost. Hindu Tantra helps restore these methods of worship through its understanding of ritual, meditation and iconography.

Tantra offers such a wealth of images as the Dasha Mahavidya or Ten Wisdom Forms of the Goddess, and the many forms of Kali and Durga. Tantra provides the most detailed information on the visualization of such deities, their forms, ornaments and weapons and how to use them. Tantra contains an important tradition of sacred art, with a deep understanding of symbolism and precise rules of depiction. Tantra preserves the great festivals of the Goddess like Navaratri and Durga Puja. Tantric sacred sites from Kamakhya in Assam to Kamakshi in Tamil Nadu preserve not only a tradition of Goddess worship but a living connection with the Goddess in nature.

 

Historical Impact of Tantra

 

Tantra is perhaps the main current in Indian spirituality of the last thousand years or more and helps us understand its entire movement. Most of modern Hinduism and even much of Buddhism and Jainism is Tantric. There is a strong Tantric element to the Sikh Dharma, if one looks deeply. Tibetan Buddhism is largely a Tantric form, taken up from Indian Tantrics in Bengal and Bihar. Such a Buddhism of mantras, mandalas, deities, yoga and meditation is much closer to Hindu Tantric and Vedic disciplines than it is to the older Buddhism of Sri Lanka and Thailand.

tantraTraditional Tantra has a strong ascetic and monastic form, though it has its householder tradition as well. Special Tantric worship of different forms of the Goddess go on in the major Shankaracharya Maths in India, using powerful mantras, yantras and rituals. Shankara himself was not only the most famous Advaitic teacher but also one of the most important Tantric teachers. His great poem to the Goddess, Saundarya Lahiri, remains perhaps the most important Tantric text that is used for Sri Chakra worship.

South Indian Agamic temple worship is Tantric in this broader sense. The entire Shakta tradition or worship of the Goddess in India is Tantric. Most of Shaivism is Tantric. Yet even Tantric elements are there in Vaishnava and other traditions.

Tantric teachings have been important for most of the main gurus of modern India since Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, including Aurobindo, Shivananda, Anandamayi Ma and many others. Ganapati Muni, the chief disciple of Ramana Maharshi, was another great Tantric Yogi. Yet this tradition is even older. The main Yoga gurus over the past thousand years or more have been mainly Nath Yogis, who are Tantric Shaivites, starting with Goraknath and Matsyendra Nath. Such Nath Yogis were the founders of the Hatha Yoga tradition as well as many important approaches to Tantra. Nath Yogis were honored by Shankara, Jnanadeva, Abhinavagupta, and many other great Hindu teachers of the medieval period. Even the teachings of modern Yoga guru, Krishnamacharya, are attributed to tradition stated by one Natha Muni. This means that without understanding real Tantra it is hard to understand Yoga.

In fact, the best way to understand real Tantra is as an expanded form of Raja Yoga. Like the Yoga Sutras and in more detail Tantra teaches asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi, but providing many more specific forms and techniques. It gives the details on mantras and methods that are only alluded to in the Sutras.

We can also explain real Tantra as a yogic approach to science and art. In this regard, there is a cross over between Vedic and Tantric sciences in such disciplines as Ayurveda, Jyotish and Vastu. Tantra is the basis of the Rasa Shastra or alchemical side of Ayurveda and much of Ayurveda’s psychological treatments. Tantra uses the rules of Jyotish for determining favorable times for ritual, pujas and so on. Tantric architecture and temple building develops from Vastu. In fact, it is in Tantra, contrary to modern academicians who fail to see the obvious connection, that we find the most detailed applications of Vedic teachings of ritual, mantra, yajna, puja and meditation.

So whether we like it or not, Tantra is and will remain a dominant force not only in Indian but in world spirituality. While we can recognize the place of popular and New Age forms of Tantra as a point of entry into these teachings, it is important to recognize the broader and deeper scope of real Tantra which is more than these and may be quite different from them. Tantra is the practical and energetic application of all the yogic wisdom of life, time, space and energy. If you approach it with the right intention, it can offer you much more than the fulfillment of your desires, it can help you gain the supreme goal of life of realization of the entire universe within your own awareness!

 

 

 

This article is authored by David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri)

Source: vedanet.com

When Is Sex a Spiritual Practice?

March 7, 2015 Uncategorizederotic energy, erotic spirituality, sex and spirituality, spiritual sex, tantra
tantra

Recognizing that our bodies and our sexuality are sacred is a good way to begin undoing the split between sex and spirit that’s plagued our dualistic culture for millennia. But much more is necessary for erotic activity to take its rightful place as a spiritual practice.

The sex negative conditioning so pervasive in both secular and spiritual communities has long served to distort our natural desire for Union. While there are certainly gifts to be found in celibacy, both the shadow side of abstaining and the loss of the gifts of a fully expressed sexuality, take their toll on bodymind.

The reality is that consciously opening to the natural sensuality of the body supports presence, relaxation, and consciousness as long as we’re not driven by addictive desperation in the pursuit of pleasure. Addictions arise in response to a combination of repressed desire, unmet needs and lack of connection to Source. Consequently, grounding sexuality in genuine spiritual practice, that is, a practice that supports awareness of “who we really are” and opens the heart can serve to inoculate us from addiction.

I’m going to use the term Erotic Spirituality here to refer to body-based sensual and sexual practices that function to support spiritual evolution. Erotic Spirituality offers a wonderfully expansive ground for embracing life exactly as it is and releasing the egoic contraction, which drives us to escape into mental masturbation. Sadly, Erotic Spirituality is often confused with the many varieties of Spiritual Materialism beautifully articulated by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

Any exotic type of sexual activity, whether it be Tantric sex, sexual healing, conscious sex, Erotic Meditation, Orgasmic Meditation, BDSM or polyamorous sex, can easily become more fuel for an ego dressed up in spiritual clothing who has now found yet another way to be special with yet another obsession or identity.

This tendency toward creating a spiritual ego is perfectly human and is certainly not limited to the realm of sacred sexuality. It’s a phenomenon well known to most spiritual seekers, but often overlooked by those searching for God in the sexual realms, and perhaps partly responsible for the cautious disdain with which sexuality is sometimes viewed in spiritual circles.

sex energyErotic Spirituality is far too potent and valuable to let spiritual materialism deter us from discovering how erotic activation can directly serve awakening. Just to be sure we’re on the same page here, let me be clear that what I mean by spiritual awakening or liberation is shifting the center of gravity from the personal self, or the individual bodymind to The One, the Self, God/Goddess, The Divine, The Beloved, All and Everything, Existence, the Peace that Passeth Understanding, the Space with a Capacity to Know, or whatever language you want to use which implies the awareness of something beyond a separate self.

A common step in this direction is the cultivation of what is sometimes called the Observer or Witness Consciousness. If we never look beyond the “I” who seems to be who we are, the one who’s been conditioned from birth to sense, speak, and react (or not) in socially approved ways, then we have little possibility of waking up.

In terms of sexuality, our conditioning tells us with whom, when, and how it’s appropriate to experience sexuality. If we don’t happen to resonate with or are unable to conform to whatever cultural expectations we’ve internalized, suffering happens. Some simply rebel against this conditioning and do the opposite, others struggle to free themselves from sexual shame and guilt, but until we realize that the one watching the conditioned self can not itself be the conditioned self, we’re really not engaged in anything more than a self improvement project called sexual liberation.

There’s something to be said for self improvement, especially when it frees us from the pressure of believing that only the young, chic, and slim are sexually desirable and that no matter how hard you try, you will never be good enough or deserving enough or free enough to be loved and sexually satisfied. But true liberation implies far more than this.

My observation is that the need for a partner who fits the social definition of desirable is equal to the level of internalized repulsion and fear of physical reality –bodies, sex, death and Nature, held by the mind.

In order to place sex in service of spirit, we must first reclaim our innocent joy in sensory experience, and get over the idea that physical desires are not spiritual, and that sex is sinful or shameful, but this is just the beginning of accessing the spiritual potential of the erotic.

loversWhen erotic activation occurs within a shared meditative container where there is no agenda, no goal, no knowing what’s going to happen next, we can practice being present and connecting in a uniquely pleasurable way. This practice can present an appropriate challenge for those who’ve mastered sitting meditation and want to take their practice off the cushion. As a bonus, sensitivity to both physical sensation and the energetic flow are enhanced, as the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system leads to a relaxing of the usual egoic concerns. Then a letting go of one pointed focus so that a sense of Oneness and expansion naturally arises. Truly this is a very feminine form of spiritual expression, and it requires a real mastery in anchoring conscious presence.

When we stop depending upon and identifying with visual stimulation, fantasy, conditioning, emotional desires, acquired information, or hormones to shape our erotic experience, and stay present and embodied while strongly activated, we are available for direct contact with the Divine. Now the erotic energy – whose function is connecting heaven and earth – is truly serving our spiritual evolution!

If instead we find our attention trapped in a maze of thoughts, emotions, desires, and unfinished business, we can see what needs to be taken care of in order to relax into awareness. This is also an occasion where the erotic is serving spiritual development. If you’re trying to avoid seeing yourself, and seeing through your story, this is, of course, the last thing you want. The same is true for other forms of meditation, of course, but perhaps this type of meditation, which involves movement and interaction with another, is a little closer to ordinary life than sitting on a cushion.

Many people use traditional meditation as medication or as a spiritual bypass in an attempt to get around making the effort of becoming more transparent. Authentic spirituality, whether erotic or not, always involves a seeing through of illusions, the aspects of life that seem glamorous, or satisfying, but are actually transitory or misleading.

My experience is that there is far more willingness to release these illusory phenomenon when the body feels open, pleasurable, relaxed, and energized.

It’s easy to get distracted from presence by the power of sexual attraction or arousal and to move into conditioned patterns of release. If instead we can remain neutral toward the outcome, we simultaneously increase our capacity for presence and pleasure in an upward spiral of awakening to our true nature!

 

 

 

 Author: Deborah Taj Anapol, www.scienceandnonduality.com

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