TANTRAYANA

Tantra is a word that originated from the Sanskrit root meaning  “weaving”. Tantrayana is the name of the philosophy of religious schools of thought found in both Buddhism and Hinduism. The earliest texts on Tantrayana may be found starting from the sixth century. This school of thought expounds the mystic philosophy and the principles of action leading to the attainment of “en¬lightenment” i.e. the state of mind of total indepen¬dence from the bonds of material existence. Some elements of the Tantric cult have ancient origins and many of its symbols have historic to prehistoric connections. 

The Nature of Tantra has been known and used during the earliest periods of Indian civilization. Yoga, which has become an important part of the Tantric psycho somatic practice, too, has ancient roots, though it has been systematically articulated in the early Christian period.

Like all heterodox movements within Hindu¬ism, Tantra opposed orthodox Hindu rituals and the Brahmanic social order. It opened its ranks to all castes and to women. It did not reject the fundamental beliefs of Hinduism or Buddhism, but it questioned the orthodox means to achieving Nirvana through a long sequence of incarnations. Setting out from the unorthodox assumption that everything in life should be employed as means towards the achievement of a higher state of consciousness, the Tantra recommends the use and manipulation of both the good and the evil, “the angels and the demons,” and of literally every act of body, speech, and mind towards the aim of the total negation of the ego, and the attainment of the intuitive wisdom. 

The use of all means includes frank acceptance of sex as a powerful motivating factor, which, like other passions and desires can be used rather than suppressed. The most unique aspect of Tantra is that, in contrast to all other known spiritual discip¬lines, it does not call for rejection of “evil” but rather for its deliberate manipulation for one’s own end. This means the gradual liberation of the mind from the bonds imposed on it by the illusionary external world.

The Tahtric road to Nirvana leads through a combination of ritual worship (Puja), psychic control of the body’s physical processes (Yoga), intense concentration (Samadhi) with the help of psycho-cosmic diagrams (Yantra) and magic formulas (Mantra), visualization of symbols represented in magic circles(Mandala) and, in some Tantric schools, enjoyment of sensuous plea~ures (Bhoga), notably sexual intercourse, regulated by ritual and harnessed to a spiritual end.

Various Tantric texts differ in their relative emphasis on such elements as philosophy, magic, physical discipline, ecstatic states, and worship. All of them stress that due to its involved symbolism and secrecy, the Tantric Sadhana (rules of action) can only be learned through direct contact of master and disciple and that Tantra cannot be learned from books or understood in intellectual terms. It can only be grasped intuitively through the disciplined and patient practice of intense meditation and practice-induced ecstatic states, under the guidance of a competent teacher, the Guru.