Tantra (Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga)

Tantra is a psycho-religious movement connected with the worship of Sakti, the archetypal feminine aspect of God, seen as creative energy or the divine mother. In Tantric understanding there is total acceptance and affirmation of life. The world is a manifestation of the dynamic aspect of divinity, not to be devalued and renounced as suffering but to be celebrated and enjoyed with insight and understanding. Tantra advocates a practical, experimental approach to self-realization, rather than a philosophical one, and can better be described as a complete life-style with its own attitudes and values rather than a philosophy or a religion. Buddhist Tantrism is based on the mahayana system, the Hindu on advaita-vedanta. Tantra emphasizes a total involvement with life, expressing a deep and healthy respect for the human body as the basic and essential tool for salvation. The harmony and perfection of the physical body reflect the harmony and perfection of the universe, a microcosmic image of the macrocosm.

In the Hindu system, absolute reality is a union of the opposing forces of pure consciousness (Siva) and pure energy (Sakti). At the time of creation their primordial unity is broken and the world of duality brought to birth. The bondage of duality may be escaped through realizing the union of opposites within the human body and mind. This cannot arise in an uninitiated, unguided and natural state. Inner divine union arises only when mind and body have been purified, controlled and perfected. Depending on the psycho-physical nature of the disciple the guru prescribes different techniques - orthodox, external worship for the tamasic (mind steeped in inertia) sadhaka, intense and experimental discipline for the rajasic (energetic) sadhaka. This latter, after a long and arduous sequence of spiritual discipline, undertakes the ritual of five essential elements, the methodical and ceremonial use of wine, meat, fish, cereal aphrodisiacs and sexual intercourse. Throughout the ritual there is strict emphasis on the use of Yogic bandhas and mudras. By proper control the sadhaka heightens psychic tension so that it has power to arrest all mental processes. This cessation of the modifications of the mind is the basis of spiritual ecstasy.

Countering the ascetic tradition, the role of the body and of sense experience are glorified since, although under most circumstances they are obstacles to self-realization (maya-Sakti), they may be transformed into vehicles of liberation and the attainment of higher consciousness (cit-Sakti). Since the human race is in the midst of the kali yuga or dark age, human wickedness is such that man is incapable of approaching divinity using the older techniques, practical tricks and devices at this stage being permissible. Several tantric tools have been developed to transmute sensory experience from a binding to a liberating role. These tools include: mandalas (or yantras), geometrical designs used for the transformation of visual sense experience; mantras, for the transformation of auditory sense experience; and mudras, for the transformation of bodily experience through the channelling of energies by means of special postures and gestures. Of these methods, use of mantras is pre-eminent.

Inner development is the progressive extrication from the profane life. In Hindu Tantrism, this progression is the standard way of the householder to householder-ascetic and finally mendicant. Kulanarva Tantra defines seven stages of initiation or degrees of spiritual maturity, in two groups, the first four being the path of worldly activity, [pravritti-marga]

: veda acara, vaisnava acara, saiva acara, daksina acara; the last three being the path of cessation, [nivritti-marga]

: vama acara, siddhanta acara, kaula acara. The first stage of initiation on the nivritti marga is a ritual known as [panca tattva]

or [panca makara]

, There are two paths, the right-hand path - [daksina acara]

- which treats the ritual metaphorically and the left-hand path which is literal - [vama acara]

. The last of the five components of the ceremony is [maithuna]

or ritualized coition. This practice embodies the union of the male and female aspects of primal reality polarized in man, a union basic to Tantrism which sees the phenomenal world of [samsara]

and the transcendence of [nirvana]

as two poles of one unity, whose essential identity may be realized when human consciousness is cleansed of all misconceptions. Here there is no following of a path to reach a goal but a resting, fulfilled, in the all pervasive original mind.

In Buddhist thought, [tantra]

refers to a system of the spiritual path in three stages: the basis or ground (the person practising the system); the way or path (of meditation) purifying the practitioner; the result or fruition which is the experience or mode of awareness arising. There are a number of tantric systems practised according to the spiritual state and capacity of the person undertaking the path. For example, there are four types of [tantra]

in Tibetan Buddhism - action or [kriya tantra]

; [carya]

tantra, the elaboration way of the master; [yoga]

tantra; [anuttara]

tantra, that of the Buddha, the supreme yoga tantra. This latter has been further subdivided into three - [mahayoga]

, [anuyoga]

and [atiyoga]

, all based on the sexual symbolism inherent in the balance of [upaya]

- the masculine or skilful way practised for example by the vajra masters and [prajna]

- the feminine way as practised by the masters of wisdom, [vidyahara]

. Through union of the polarity of the feminine and masculine principles duality is transcended.