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tantra

At this point we would like to provide an excerpt from a traditional view. It illuminates a little the origin of Tantra. We at Secret Tantra have purged the somewhat overloaded terms. More information can be found under Modern Tantra. Here is a description of how it is used in the context of yoga and Buddhist tradition:

The system called Tantra has always been regarded as an esoteric secret path of spiritual practice and has not been accessible to every inexperienced person or common people. The secret of this practice seems to consist of an unusual design of the world which requires the seeker to interpret and evaluate things in a completely different way and which deviates from the normal, habitual view of things. The Tantra teachers say that a seeker on this path must outgrow the social and even human view and develop a superhuman and divine view of things. Since this would demand too much from the common man of this world, however, Tantra should also be and remain a closed secret, the doors of which can only be opened with the key provided by an able guru alone.

philosophy

The philosophy of Tantra is based on the concept of the dual nature of all things. Nothing is single, but everything is bipolar or double-pole. The so-called unity of things is only one manifestation, which is assumed by the special behavior of the meeting of two forces, Shiva and Shakti, one could also say the positive and negative poles. In order to understand this mystical conception of the universe, we would like to refer to the traditional teachings of Puranas, Manusmriti and Mahabharata, which say that in the beginning there was a universal single cell that was always there, known as Brahmanda, and then split into two. One part became the Cosmic Man and the other the Cosmic Woman. If we want, we can also call these parts Shiva and Shakti. Even our modern natural sciences seem to confirm this view when they say that the universe in the beginning was a single atom which first split into two and then split into the variety of the present forms of the universe.

Since these two parts and their subsequent subdivisions actually belong to an entire whole, there is a natural attraction that is exercised from one part to the other part. So there is a bilateral pull between the positive and negative poles on the cosmic level and on that of their lower manifold ancestry forms, even down to the atom. We know today that the atom is also built in a bipolar structure, with the nucleus in the center and the electrons orbiting it in an absolutely mysterious way. The reaction of the two different parts of each organism seems to be a double conception of consciousness towards unity and duality at the same time. There can be no attraction between the positive and the negative unless they form two poles and a single Something. On the other hand, without a basic unity that works in and between them, there can be no such attraction if there are two completely different things. So this is the mystery, the mystery and also the difficulty of understanding the phenomenon known as attraction, usually called love or affection in the common language.

bipolarity

So the concept of Shiva and Shakti in its highest essence represents this Supreme Cosmic Duality. One can primarily imagine that only attraction and love work together there, so that Shiva and Shakti are to be regarded as inseparable aspects of a unified reality, which is sometimes also called Ardhanareesvara, the cosmic androgynous. On the lower levels, however, the principle of repulsion works, which means that aversion goes hand in hand with affection, as does love with hatred. There the bipolar unity takes on a variety of forms, so that one bipolar element cannot tolerate the influence or sometimes even the mere presence of such another bipolar element - for fear of losing its isolated, self-conscious bipolar half and thus its unity. This subtle interplay can become apparent in its more crude form, for example, when a family group has difficulty recognising another and giving her the same love as its own. At this level, a society, a social class and even a bipolar individual cannot face each other without some suspicion and certain reservations.

According to the doctrines or Tantra, the cause of all suffering in life is bipolar existence, this unity divided into two, because not dual existence in any given form is the truth of things, but oneness. Since the twofold form of all life is in some ways an unnatural way of life, there is always an ambivalent standpoint between the one and the other pole of liking and disliking, at one and the same time. Thus love is held down when hate prevails and hate is suppressed when love prevails. The fact is, however, that both of these attitudes are always hidden in an individual, but only one of these aspects comes to light when or as the situation requires. Instead of the duality of regaining unity, this is the process in Tantra Sadhana - but this is the goal of every sadhana.

disparity

So what is so special about Tantra, and how does it differ from other sadhanas to achieve this goal? The difference is very subtle and not easy to perceive. In every form of religious practice there are mostly ascetic rules for the practitioner's attitude of mind. The outer should be rejected for the sake of the inner and the material for the sake of the spiritual. Any desire should be prevented as a harmful obstacle to the sadhana and all joie de vivre should be regarded as an evil which must be eradicated as early as possible.

Well, in Tantra, the things of the world, the material forms of perception, are not really obstacles, and a desire for them cannot be defeated by rejecting the desire itself. Everything in this world, and even the whole world itself, is in a transition from imperfection to perfection. The visible is a way to the invisible and not its obstacle. Human desire arises precisely because of that unintelligent view which man has developed of this desire. He has, so to speak, been afraid of lust ever since he was told that all desire is bad and that all external things only lead to servitude.

Tantra says that the outer thing, the object, is not a captivating compulsion, simply because of the fact that the object is inseparably connected to the subject. The object is the other pole of the subject, the complementary pole, so to speak. Both poles complement each other. All experience is in a subject-object relation, and therefore no one can even think of consciously overcoming the object of desire, unless he has previously established a relationship with the object. Therefore, overcoming the object means for us again and again to enter a vicious circle. Despite all efforts there is no possibility to get rid of the object, because already in the consciousness the presence of the object is there. Hence the great Tantra saying that desire can only be overcome by desire, just as the object can only be defeated by the object. It is also said in Tantra that the other aspect of this principle is "that you can also straighten up through what you fall through". (Yaireva patanam dravyaih siddhih taireva.)

Here the core of the whole thing regarding Tantra comes to light, which clearly distinguishes it from all other religious practices and forms of Sadhana. Why this practice is difficult and even dangerous becomes obvious through the nature of the doctrine, although one must admit that the doctrine may be somewhat rational and based on the depth psychology of human nature.

The steps of Tantra

The Tantra teachers know that there are great difficulties when it comes to memorizing and practicing these doctrines. In this respect, the art of sadhana on this path is regarded as a staggered upward movement during the various stages of ascension. By ascending to a state where the very relationship between subject and object is transcended or overcome, one achieves different levels of cognition and a detachment of the subject from the entanglement of the object.

These fixed levels are as follows: Vedechara, Vaishnavachara, Saivachara, Dakshinachara, Vamachara, Siddhantachara and finally Kaulachara. Of these seven listed levels, the first three are for the lower category of Sadhakas, known as Pasu Jiva (persons in whom animal nature is predominant). The next two stand for the Vira Jiva (persons in whom the normal human instinct prevails) and the last two for the Divya Jiva (persons in whom the divine element prevails).

It is believed that the first three Acharas stand especially for Karma. Bhakti and Jnana, the Veda who stands for the ritual, Vaishnava for devotion and Saiva for knowledge. The fourth Achara, called Dakshina, tries to preserve the results achieved by practicing the first three stages. Up to this level, motion is nearby linear and practically straight. On the next level (Vamachara), however, there is a strange difference in perspective, for this term includes the beginning of the backward flow of the soul movement towards reality. "Vama" does not mean "left" as most people seem to think, but "reversal process", Nivritti or the return - unlike Pravritti or the forward flowing with the natural flow of senses. Here lies the beginning of the most secret practice or esoteric aspect of Tantra Sadhana, where objects of attraction, of stimulus, whatever they may be, are regarded as instruments and tools, not to be rejected, but to be integrated and made part of one's being. But the intention is to overcome that consciousness that they are outside of oneself, as some kind of opposing, opposite object or some external something. This special phase should not actually be explained, but only learned directly by a teacher.

The nature of things

In general, wealth, power and sex are considered to be the greatest obstacles on the path to spiritual perfection. Tantra, however, tries to harness and overcome precisely these, and to do so with precisely those means by which an inexperienced mind would plunge itself into disaster.

The Pasu, Vira and Divya Bhavas correspond to the animal, human and divine natures and take into account the coarse, the fine and the divine aspects of things which must be encountered as opposites in one's spiritual life. This is the forbidden area of Tantra Sadhana, the area which the true seeker does not disclose because the common man is not supposed to know, understand or benefit from it. Every object has a coarse, a fine and a divine form, and every Sadhaka must go through all these phases. Tantra insists that no stage or phase should be rejected as an obstacle, but should be taken and passed through by each individual himself. Man can only bring an unknown thing, an object of fear, not under his control.

Tantra says that the unclean, ugly and unholy things of life are actually things that were wrongly not seen in their real context, not from their own particular position or from the point of view of things themselves. They are neither good nor bad, neither beautiful nor ugly and neither holy nor unholy. All these are only ideas that our mind gives us from a special point of interest. Our minds are reluctant to consider that there may be interests other than their own. The universe must be seen from many angles, not just from one. From the former, one must ascend to the latter, with a systematic and progressive movement of one's whole being through the crude, the subtle, and the divine construction of things. In the beginning you have contact with the object. Next thing you know, you just think it with your mind. Lastly one visualizes it only as a trouble spot or stress point in Universal Reality.

The above-mentioned Siddhantachara and Kaulachara complete the process of sadhana, immersing one in the true nature of things and becoming truly superhuman. The task that religious practice brings with it is not the rejection of the object or thing itself, but that of the idea or idea that it, the object, is outside of oneself. The wrong idea awakens desire, not the object or thing itself. The regulation here is indeed very subtle.


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Secret Tantra - Tantra

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