Tantra ( , "loom, warp"; hence "principle, system, doctrine", from the two root words
"stretch, extend, expand", and
"liberation"), anglicised
tantricism or
tantrism or
tantram, refers to
esoteric schools of
Hinduism and
Buddhism and to the
scriptures (called "
Tantras") commonly identified with the worship of
Shakti. In "left-handed" Tantra (
Vamachara), ritual
sexual intercourse is employed as a way of entering into the underlying processes and structure of the universe.
Overview
There are a number of different definitions of Tantra, not always mutually consistent. Robert Brown notes that the term
tantrism is a construction of
western scholarship, not a concept that comes from the religious system itself. This makes its independence questionable though it is generally recognized by Tantrics as different from the
Vedic tradition. David Gordon White suggests its key principle is that the universe we experience is the concrete manifestation of the divine energy that creates and maintains it: Tantric practice seeks to contact and channel that energy within the human
microcosm by means of ritual in order to achieve creativity and freedom.
Rather than a single coherent system, Tantra is an accumulation of practices and ideas, characterized by ritual that seeks to access the supra-mundane through the mundane, identifying the microcosm with the macrocosm. The Tantric practitioner seeks to use prana, an energy that flows through the universe (including one's own body) to attain goals that may be spiritual, material or both. Most practitioners of tantra consider mystical experience imperative. Some versions of Tantra require the guidance of a guru.
Long training is generally required to master Tantric methods, into which pupils are typically initiated by a guru. Yoga, including breathing techniques and postures (asana), is employed to subject the body to the control of the will. Mudras, or gestures, mantras or syllables, words and phrases, mandalas and yantras, symbolic diagrams of the forces at work in the universe, are all used as aids for meditation and for the achievement of spiritual and magical power. During meditation the initiate identifies with any of the numerous Hindu gods and goddesses, visualizes them and internalises them, a process likened to sexual courtship and consummation. The Tantrika, or tantric practitioner may use visualizations of deities, identifying with the deity so that the aspirant "becomes" the Ishta-deva or meditational deity.
The primary sources of written Hindu Tantric lore are the agama, which generally consist of four parts, delineating metaphysical knowledge (jnana), contemplative procedures (yoga), ritual regulations (kriya), and ethical and religious injunctions (charya). Schools and lineages affiliate themselves with specific agamic traditions. Hindu tantra exists in Shaiva, Vaisnava, Ganapatya, Saurya and Shakta forms, amongst others, so that individual tantric texts may be classified as Shaiva , Vaishnava , and Shakta Tantras, though there is no clear dividing line between these works. The expression Tantra generally includes all such works.
Relation with Vedic tradition
André Padoux notes that in India tantra is marked by a rejection of orthodox Vedic tenets.
Moriz Winternitz, in his review of the literature of tantra, points out that, while Indian tantric texts are not positively hostile to the Vedas, they may regard the precepts of the Vedas as too difficult for our age, while an easier cult and an easier doctrine have been revealed in them.
Many orthodox Brahmans who accept the authority of the Vedas reject the authority of the Tantras. Although later Tantric writers wanted to base their doctrines on the Vedas, many orthodox followers of the Vedic tradition invariably referred to Tantra in a spirit of denunciation, stressing its anti-Vedic character.
However, various orthodox Brahmanas routinely incorporate Tantric rituals in their daily activities (Ahnikas). For example, sarvA~nga-nyAsas and kara-nyAsas (tAntric techniques for placing various deities) are part of chanting tracts such as the rudra-prashna of the yajurvEda and viShNu-sahasra-nAma; and gAyatrI-AvahanaM is a common part of Sandhyavandanam in south India .
Relation to Yoga
Though Tantra and Yoga are in some senses contrary, Tantra being a non-dual philosophy while Yoga is a dualistic philosophy of renunciation) they do have some common philosophies and goals.
Osho in his discoursea upon the
Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, differentiated the two by saying, "Yoga is suppression with awareness; tantra is indulgence with awareness."
Summarizing the three major paths of the Vedic knowledge, Robert Svoboda wrote:
Buddhist Tantra
In Buddhism, defined as a scripture taught by the Buddha describing the
Vajrayana practices.
According to Tibetan Buddhist Tantric master Lama Thubten Yeshe:
...each one of us is a union of all universal energy. Everything that we need in order to be complete is within us right at this very moment. It is simply a matter of being able to recognize it. This is the tantric approach.
Evolution and involution
Linguistically the three words
mantram,
tantram and
yantram are related in the ancient traditions of India, as well as phonologically.
Mantram denotes the chant, or "knowledge."
Tantram denotes philosophy, or ritual actions.
Yantram denotes the means by which a human is expected to lead his life.
According to Tantra, "being-consciousness-bliss" or Satchidananda has the power of both self-evolution and self-involution. Prakriti or "reality" evolves into a multiplicity of creatures and things, yet at the same time always remains pure consciousness, pure being, and pure bliss. In this process of evolution, Maya (illusion) veils Reality and separates it into opposites, such as conscious and unconscious, pleasant and unpleasant, and so forth. If not recognized as illusion, these opposing determining conditions bind, limit and fetter (pashu) the individual (jiva).
Generally speaking, the Hindu god and goddess Shiva and Shakti are perceived as separate and distinct. However, in Tantra, even in the process of evolution, Reality remains pure consciousness, pure being and pure bliss, and Tantra denies neither the act nor the fact of this process. In fact, Tantra affirms that both the world-process itself, and the individual jiva, are themselves Real. In this respect, Tantra distinguishes itself both from pure dualism and from the qualified non-dualism of Vedanta. and the "Secret Ritual".
Ordinary ritual
The ordinary ritual or
puja may include any of the following elements:
Mantra and yantra
As in other
Hindu and
Buddhist yoga traditions,
mantra and
yantra play an important role in Tantra. The
mantra and
yantra are instruments to invoke specific Hindu deities such as Shiva, Shakti, or
Kali. Similarly,
puja may involve focusing on a
yantra or
mandala associated with a deity.
Identification with deities
Tantra, as a development of early Hindu-Vedic thought, embraced the Hindu gods and goddesses, especially
Shiva and
Shakti, along with the
Advaita philosophy that each represents an
aspect of the ultimate Para Shiva, or
Brahman. These deities may be worshipped externally with flowers, incense, and other offerings, such as singing and dancing. But, more importantly, these deities are engaged as
attributes of
Ishta Devata meditations, the practitioners either visualizing themselves
as the deity, or experiencing the
darshan (the vision) of the deity. These Tantric practices form the foundation of the ritual
temple dance of the
devadasis, and are preserved in the
Melattur style of
Bharatanatyam by Guru Mangudi Dorairaja Iyer.
Secret ritual
Called the Vamamarga, this branch of Tantra departs from the conventional form or mantra and yoga. Secret ritual may include any or all of the elements of ordinary ritual, either directly or substituted, along with other sensate rites and themes such as a feast (representing food, or sustenance), coitus (representing sexuality and procreation), the charnel grounds (representing death and transition) and defecation, urination and vomiting (representing waste, renewal, and fecundity). It is this sensate inclusion that prompted
Zimmer's praise of Tantra's world-affirming attitude:
In the Tantra, the manner of approach is not that of Nay but of Yea ... the world attitude is affirmative ... Man must approach through and by means of nature, not by rejection of nature.
In Avalon's Chapter 27: The Pañcatattva (The Secret Ritual) of Sakti and Sakta (1918), Chakrapuja and Panchamakara) involves:
Worship with the Pañcatattva generally takes place in a Cakra or circle composed of men and women... sitting in a circle, the Shakti (or female practitioner) being on the Sadhaka's (male practitioner's) left. Hence it is called Cakrapuja. ...There are various kinds of Cakra – productive, it is said, of differing fruits for the participator therein.
Avalon also provides a series of variations and substitutions of the Panchatattva (Panchamakara) "elements" or tattva encoded in the Tantras and various tantric traditions, and affirms that there is a direct correlation to the Tantric Five Nectars and the Mahābhūta.
Sexual rites
Sexual rites of
Vamamarga may have emerged from early Hindu Tantra as a practical means of catalyzing biochemical transformations in the body to facilitate heightened states of awareness. These constitute a vital offering to Tantric deities. Sexual rites may have also evolved from clan initiation ceremonies involving transactions of sexual fluids. Here the male initiate is inseminated or ensanguined with the sexual emissions of the female consort, sometimes admixed with the semen of the guru. The
Tantrika is thus transformed into a son of the clan (
kulaputra) through the grace of his consort. The clan fluid (
kuladravya) or clan nectar (
kulamrita) is conceived as flowing naturally from her womb. Later developments in the rite emphasize the primacy of bliss and divine union, which replace the more bodily connotations of earlier forms. Although popularly equated with Tantra in its entirety in the West, such sexual rites were historically practiced by a minority of sects. For many practicing lineages, these
maithuna practices progressed into psychological symbolism.
Western views
(shown here in the three-dimensional projection known as
Sri Meru or
Maha Meru used mainly in rituals of the
Srividya Shakta sects) is central to most Tantric forms of Shaktism.]]
Sir John Woodroffe
The first Western scholar to take the study of Tantra seriously was
Sir John Woodroffe (1865–1936), who wrote about Tantra under the
pen name Arthur Avalon. He is generally held as the "founding father of Tantric studies." Unlike previous Western scholars, Woodroffe was an ardent advocate for Tantra, defending Tantra against its many critics and presenting Tantra as an ethical philosophical system greatly in accord with the
Vedas and
Vedanta. Woodroffe himself practised Tantra as he saw and understood it and, while trying to maintain his scholastic objectivity, was considered a student of Hindu Tantra (in particular
Shiva-Shakta) tradition.
Further development
Following Sir John Woodroffe, a number of scholars began to actively investigate Tantric teachings. These included a number of scholars of
comparative religion and
Indology, such as:
Agehananda Bharati,
Mircea Eliade,
Julius Evola,
Carl Jung,
Giuseppe Tucci and
Heinrich Zimmer.
According to Hugh Urban, Zimmer, Evola and Eliade viewed Tantra as "the culmination of all Indian thought: the most radical form of spirituality and the archaic heart of aboriginal India", and regarded it as the ideal religion of the modern era. All three saw Tantra as "the most transgressive and violent path to the sacred."
In the modern world
Following these first presentations of Tantra, other more popular authors such as
Joseph Campbell helped to bring Tantra into the imagination of the peoples of the
West. Tantra came to be viewed by some as a "cult of ecstasy", combining sexuality and spirituality in such a way as to act as a corrective force to Western repressive attitudes about sex.
As Tantra has become more popular in the West it has undergone a major transformation. For many modern readers, "Tantra" has become a synonym for "spiritual sex" or "sacred sexuality", a belief that sex in itself ought to be recognized as a sacred act which is capable of elevating its participants to a more sublime spiritual plane. Though Neotantra may adopt many of the concepts and terminology of Indian Tantra, it often omits one or more of the following: the traditional reliance on guruparampara (the guidance of a guru), extensive meditative practice, and traditional rules of conduct—both moral and ritualistic.
According to one author and critic on religion and politics, Hugh Urban:
Since at least the time of Agehananda Bharati, most Western scholars have been severely critical of these new forms of pop Tantra. This "California Tantra" as Georg Feuerstein calls it, is "based on a profound misunderstanding of the Tantric path. Their main error is to confuse Tantric bliss ... with ordinary orgasmic pleasure.
Urban goes on to say that he himself doesn't consider this "wrong" or "false" but rather "simply a different interpretation for a specific historical situation."
Hindu Tantric practitioners
Akshunnanath Mahaprabhu
Swami Rama
See also
;Hindu tantra
Kaśmir Śaivism
Sri Chakra
Vasugupta
;Buddhist tantra
Anuttarayoga Tantra
Dakini
Shingon Buddhism
Tantra techniques (Vajrayana)
;Other related topics
Ananda Marga
Ganachakra
Great Rite
Karezza
Sex magic
Taoist sexual practices
Notes
References
Second Revised Edition
According to the Nityotsava|publisher=Institut für Indologie|location=|isbn=81-86218-12-2}} First Indian Edition, Kant Publications, 2003.
Second revised reprint edition. Two volumes. First published 1927 by the University of Calcutta.
Further reading
Smith, Frederick M. (2006). The Self Possessed: Deity and Spirit Possession in South Asian Literature. Columbia University Press, USA. ISBN 0231137486.
External links
Category:Hindu philosophical concepts
Category:Sanskrit words and phrases
Category:Shaktism
Category:Spiritual practice