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Tantra Rising
from
YogaJournal.com
More and more Westerners are embracing Tantra as a means
for transforming day-to-day experiences into a cause for
blissful celebration. Can it change your life?
By Nora Isaacs
One night Vasugupta, a great sage believed to have lived
during the latter half of the eighth century, had a dream in
which Lord Shiva appeared. Shiva instructed the sage to visit
a nearby mountain called Mahadevgiri, where he would find 77
sutras (verses) under a rock. When he awoke, Vasagupta did as
he was told. He found the sutras they revealed a path to
samadhi (spiritual liberation) through a philosophy and a
powerful practice of meditation that, together, were known as
Tantra and began to teach them to others.
According to a branch of Tantra called Kashmir Shaivism, that
is how one of their central texts, the Shiva Sutras, came
about. But great debate surrounds the origins, history, and
practice of the complex and at times controversial body of
knowledge known as Tantra. "There are widely different Tantric
texts," says meditation teacher Sally Kempton, "and different
philosophical positions taken by Tantrikas," or practitioners
of Tantra. One core aspect of Tantric philosophy that's taught
in the West, however, remains consistent: That aspect is
nondualism, or the idea that one's true essence (alternatively
known as the transcendental Self, pure awareness, or the
Divine) exists in every particle of the universe.
In the nondualist belief system, there is no separation
between the material world and the spiritual realm. Although
as humans we perceive duality all around us good and bad, male
and female, hot and cold these are illusions created by the
ego when, in fact, all opposites are contained in the same
universal consciousness. For Tantrikas, that means that
everything you do and all that you sense, ranging from pain to
pleasure and anything in between, is really a manifestation of
the Divine and can be a means to bring you closer to your own
divinity. "In Tantra, the world is not something to escape
from or overcome, but rather, even the mundane or seemingly
negative events in day-to-day life are actually beautiful and
auspicious," says Pure Yoga founder Rod Stryker, a teacher in
the Tantric tradition of Sri Vidya. "Rather than looking for
samadhi, or liberation from the world, Tantra teaches that
liberation is possible in the world."
Until as recently as a hundred years ago, Tantra was a
practice that was shrouded in mystery because it was passed
down orally from teacher to initiated student. Some of the
streams are highly secretive, and many Hindu Tantric texts
haven't even been translated into English. But the second half
of the 20th century brought a group of dedicated teachers who
started to make the teachings better known, such as Swami
Lakshmanjoo, thought by some to be the reincarnation of the
famous 10th-century Tantric master Abhinava Gupta. Meanwhile
Swamis Muktananda and Chidvilasananda spread their approaches
to Tantra through the Siddha Yoga tradition in the West. Today
their students like Stryker, Kempton, and John Friend (along
with other popular Western teachers like Swami Chetananda and
John Hughes) are fervently leading a Tantric renaissance in
the West, and translations of influential texts such as Spanda
Karika, Vijnana Bhairava, and the Shiva Sutras have become
widely available in English.
Although most modern yogis won't get initiated into a secret
lineage or practice the subtler aspects of Tantra, the essence
of the philosophy remains relevant for 21st-century life. In
fact, many teachers find that incorporating Tantra into their
teaching is empowering and inspiring for Western students who
are trying to live a spiritual life.
Tantra is not a philosophy that requires a modern-day
householder to renounce the world by giving up family, job,
possessions, and pleasures. Instead, it emphasizes personal
experimentation and experience as a way to move forward on the
path to self-realization.
A Brief History
If you hear about Tantra in your yoga class, you're probably
learning about Hindu Tantra. (There is also a Buddhist stream,
known as Vajrayana Buddhism.) Within Hindu Tantra, there are
hundreds of branches, schools, and lineages. Some of the
better known are Kashmir Shaivism, an umbrella term for
several schools that originated in South India; the Kaula
School, which views the body as a vehicle for liberation;
Shakta traditions that worship the feminine; and radical
"left-handed" schools like the modern-day Neo-Tantra School,
which has given Tantra its reputation for sex-enhancing
rituals.
At the heart of most of these schools lies the idea of
awakening kundalini, thought to be a feminine, dynamic energy
in the form of a serpent lying dormant at the base of the
spine. Many of the ancient Tantric practices focused on
bringing that dormant energy to life by moving it upward,
through the seven chakras (energy centers) in the body. The
majority of students today focus less on a full kundalini
awakening (to learn why, see Is It Safe to Awaken the Snake?)
and instead concentrate on bringing the subtle body (also
known as the "energy body") into a state of balance.
Like much else in yoga's history, Tantra's origins are still
debated. Some scholars believe that it began in the Indus
Valley (Pakistan and northwestern India) between 3,000 and
5,000 years ago, when the earliest yoga texts, the Vedas, were
written. But Tantra did not come into common practice until
the fourth century, after Patanjali's classical yoga
flourished.
Why did Tantra come about in the first place? Renowned yoga
scholar Georg Feuerstein believes it was a response to a
period of spiritual decline, also known as Kali Yuga or the
Dark Age, that is still in progress today. According to this
theory, powerful measures were needed to counteract the many
obstacles to spiritual liberation, such as greed, dishonesty,
physical and emotional illness, attachment to worldly things,
and complacency. Tantra's comprehensive array of practices,
which include asana and pranayama as well as mantra
(chanting), pujas (deity worship), kriyas (cleansing
practices), mudras (seals), and mandalas and yantras (circular
or geometric patterns used to develop concentration), offered
just that. Also, Tantra wasn't exclusively practiced by the
noble Brahman class. It gained power and momentum by being
available to all types of people - men and women, Brahmans and
laypeople, could all be initiated.
One yoga scholar, Richard Rosen, explains Tantra's emergence
as simply a response to a confluence of cultural forces:
"People were trying out new things because the old things were
no longer working. Energy, especially feminine energy, was
percolating in the collective unconscious, and it found an
outlet at a certain time in history to express itself."
A Divine Tapestry
One common philosophical thread runs through the intricately
woven tapestry of Tantra lineages, schools, and streams: The
belief that everything is divine. "Tantra believes that there
is literally no particle of reality that isn't capable of
revealing ecstasy and that everything that exists is full of
light and awareness," says Kempton, who is from the Siddha
Yoga lineage. This idea is radically different from those of
the other two schools of Indian philosophy that you might hear
about in yoga class: Patanjali's classical yoga (also known as
ashtanga yoga, or the eight limbs of yoga), and Advaita
Vedanta. Most scholars agree that Patanjali was dualist and
therefore believed that the divine, spiritual realm was
separate from the everyday world. Vedantists, like Tantrikas,
are nondualist, but they perceive the world as an illusion.
Anusara founder John Friend, also from the Siddha Yoga
lineage, uses the analogy of watching a sunset to
differentiate between the three streams: A classicalist might
quiet the mind and withdraw his senses to gain freedom from
the material world and access the spiritual. A Vedantist
regards the sunset as being part of the spiritual world but
believes that seeing it as a sunset is an illusion. A Tantrika
recognizes the sunset for what it is in the regular world but
sees it as part of the divine whole. What's more, she fully
delights in the experience while it lasts. "You really
appreciate the beauty of the light and the gorgeous colors,"
Friend says. "It's a practice of deepening sensitivity."
Although they differ, these traditions certainly overlap: "It
[Tantra] profoundly influenced the outlook and practices of
many non-Tantric traditions, such as Vedanta," writes Georg
Feuerstein in Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy. "Often
practitioners of those traditions have been unaware of that
influence and might even be offended at the suggestion that
they engage in typically Tantric practices."
Our Bodies, Our Selves
Another difference between Tantra and classical yoga is
Tantra's body-positive view. Since the body exists in the
material world, the classical yoga viewpoint is that it is
inferior to the transcendental Self or spirit. Tantra views
the body as a manifestation of spirit. By making the body pure
and strong through asana and by uniting the universe of
opposites within your body, it can become a vehicle for ending
suffering and attaining liberation. "For the first time, the
body became a temple rather than being the albatross around
the Self's neck," Rosen says. Friend agrees. "As soon as you
like your body, it's pretty much Tantric," he says. "You see
the beauty and the Divine in it."
Unfortunately, Tantra's loving embrace of the body and the
existence of "left-handed" schools that use ritual sexual
practices have led many to equate Tantra with sex. The fact
is, Tantra's attitude toward sex falls in line with its main
philosophy that every aspect of life is a gateway to the
Universal if done in a healthy way with the right intention.
"The point is not just eat, drink, and be merry, with no
consequences, but it's having a moment-to-moment response to
the energy," says yoga teacher Shiva Rea. She uses the example
of chocolate: It can be eaten addictively, but if someone
offers it to you at the right time, it's an "absolute
alchemical and divine experience invoked with meaning." The
same idea can also be applied to sex: When it's done with the
right intention - the intention of uniting opposite energies -
it can be used to express joy and unity.
Teaching Tantra Today
The main way to make the body a vehicle for liberation is to
practice asana. Modern yoga teachers who practice Tantra
employ different approaches, but the bottom line is always the
same: Hatha practice helps develop awareness of the subtle
body and then works toward balancing the body's energy to
create more physical and mental ease. To this end, Stryker
creates asana sequences that focus on refining, balancing, and
enlivening the energy landscape of his students. He follows
this with pranayama, visualization, and chanting, which he
says flows almost effortlessly once the energy has shifted.
"Breathing becomes refined, and if everything comes together,
the alchemy of the different elements creates Tantra. Then we
start to see the world in all its glory," he says.
In his teaching, Friend places importance on learning the
Anusara Yoga Universal Principles of Alignment, which teach
students to properly align their muscles and bones in the
poses. Friend believes that finding the correct physical
alignment in asanas allows energy to flow more freely and
ultimately promotes creativity and freedom both on and off the
mat. "Instead of trying to control or subjugate the body, you
try to align it with the bigger flow of the universe, so that
you can experience bliss." Friend is also known for
incorporating a positive, loving, and heart-centered approach.
He encourages his teachers to remember that the body is divine
- no matter how stiff or out of shape - so that they can
celebrate each student. "We can really find the good and the
beauty in each person right from the beginning," he says.
Rea's study of the Kashmir Shaivite school called Spanda -
which means "vibration" and focuses on the idea that the
universe is constantly pulsing or vibrating rather than static
- has greatly influenced the way she teaches asanas.
"Pulsation is not bound by ideas but has its own organic
intelligence," she says. "The way I teach is an expression of
this pulsation, so it's literally the experience of thawing
out poses and allowing organic movement and breath to become
the guiding force of the yoga practice." It is the idea of
this constant pulsation that led Rea to create Trance Dance, a
freeform mixture of dance and yoga that she teaches around the
world.
The theme of energy transformation weaves through many of the
Tantric practices, including meditation. According to Kempton,
one of the core Tantric insights is that a word, an idea, or a
thought can be a pathway to the fundamental energy of your
being. Using this idea, she teaches her students how to work
with the energy of a thought. "Instead of trying to eliminate
thoughts, you learn how to feel the energetic pulsation within
a thought," Kempton says. "As you become more attentive to the
feeling space created by a thought, the field of your mind
becomes more refined, until it becomes pure awareness."
Tantra meditation emphasizes an active approach; instead of
observing your thoughts, you focus on visualizations or
silently chant mantras. Many Tantric practitioners also choose
a deity to embody as a way of focusing the mind.
It's a Beautiful Life
In addition to asana, pranayama, and meditation, today's
teachers believe that you can tease out aspects of the Tantric
philosophy to help live daily life to the fullest. The ancient
texts gave detailed advice on how to walk, save money, cook,
set a table, and pick flowers with the greatest amount of joy
and connection to spirit. This approach makes it possible to
maintain a spiritual practice while living in the world.
Tantra's nondualist approach, with its emphasis on the oneness
of all things, can be especially helpful during polarized
times. "Tantra is a systematic way of transforming and
transmuting our dualistic tendencies," Kempton says. Take the
current war in Iraq: While a natural tendency is to choose one
camp or the other, Tantra allows you to both hold an antiwar
view and the possibility that another view might have merit.
From that place of nonattachment you can analyze things from a
unified viewpoint, understanding that we are all part of the
tapestry, trying to come to a sense of unity. "Tantra doesn't
tell you not to fight or argue," says Kempton. "It says,
'Fight if you need to, argue if you need to. But do it within
a context of understanding that we are all part of the same
fabric.'"
Ultimately, the teachers popularizing Tantra's ideas in the
West like Kempton, Friend, and Stryker see Tantra as the next
step in America's spiritual evolution. It's a philosophy that
makes sense for the many Westerners who have the privilege of
living a comfortable life without worrying about basic
survival. "We find ourselves asking, 'Now what?'" says Friend.
"Now we can actually turn our attention to living life fully."
According to Friend, spiritual practice need not be austere
and dry, but should instead be filled with joy.
"That's very radical," Kempton points out. "Many Eastern
traditions seem to regard bliss as something slightly childish
that you are supposed to get beyond in your spiritual life.
Tantra says that bliss isn't just good bliss is God. It's an
intrinsic quality of reality." Stryker agrees. "Tantra's core
idea is very distinct from other spiritual traditions, which
say our goal is to cloister ourselves away from the world
because it is the domain of suffering, sin, and illusion," he
says. "Tantra is a quite unique, powerful, and meaningful
stance to take. It's a bold statement to say that in light of
so much suffering, disaster, and fear, the world is actually a
beautiful place."
A former editor at Yoga Journal, Nora Isaacs is a freelance
magazine writer, ghostwriter, and book editor in San
Francisco. Her upcoming book, Women in Overdrive, will be
published in the fall. For more information, visit
noraisaacs.com.
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