WHAT IS TANTRA?
by Padma Aon Prakasha
Tantra is one of the most misunderstood terms, processes and ways of living in the modern ‘spiritual’ world. When in doubt about what something means, and when modern culture imposes its own meanings on timeless wisdom based on laziness, convenience, marketability and ignorance, we have to return to the original word-meaning and the direct experience of what it is.
In Sanskrit, each word has upto 7 levels of meaning in 3 modes of sound, depending on what level of consciousness you are residing at. Hence, many Sanskrit terms, teachings, processes and wisdoms are mis-interpreted. When you add cultural bias and ignorance, which started with the British translating / butchering Sanskrit texts according to their views of the world based on their culture and imperialist history, the resulting cultural appropriation of which the USA and Europe lead the way, the lack of initiation by these people into an authentic Tantric lineage, and the desire to sell, market, greatly dilute and leave out the main wisdom seeds of these teachings and reduce the deeper wisdom into bite-sized packages for public consumption, one can see how the Tantric teachings have been misappropriated and reduced to a sexual only status in the eyes of the mainstream.
Tan means to extend, propagate, stretch a cord, spread, expand. Tan also means to render, to cause something to become usable. Making unseen, invisible and mysterious energies usable and available to us is a core tenet of Tantra, by teaching us how to experience them, access them and utilise them to transform ourselves. In a larger sense, advanced tantric practices access quantum (matter in non-matter states) and formless (no matter) states of emptiness, causing them to become usable to us.
To use a modern technological analogy: CGI (computer graphics programs) calculates the appearance of made up objects on a screen by using light and shadow (polarities) in order to make these objects look realistic. The programmer constructs a world, such as we find in movies/video games special effects, and this process is a reflection of how the brain works in creating our own virtual reality simulation illusion world or ‘Maya’ we live in. All these CGI designs need huge amounts of computing power (the equivalent is the data processing power in our brains, guts, nervous systems, DNA) to form or ‘render out’ the special effects of movies/video games, using many computers in “rendering farms.”
Tan also means “to prepare a way for”. Tra means to liberate, free, unbind, uncord one from contracting cycles of suffering. Tantra is an instrument (tra) that leads to expansion (tan). This instrument is a practice and application of our inner organic technology that leads a person into expansion. Tantra is preparing a way for our expansion, tantra is extending and expanding ourself into freedom, tantra is spreading oneself outwards into the world and cosmos, seeing it as an extension of oneself.
Tan also means our physical body, and Tra is expansion in the 3 Gunas of goodness, stability and action and liberation from these 3 limitations as well; thus Tantra means a method of going beyond our unconscious karmic driven actions, our karmic ideas and virtues around goodness, and karmic inertia / ignorance/ stuckness, i.e going beyond karmas of body-mind-soul into pure Self. (thanks for this reminder Meera Sharma!)
Another meaning for Tantra is a framework for a system of practices that leads to expansion, hence Tantric schools and Lineages have been established. Tantric paths and lineages vary. Some use the meditation technology of the unified 5 M’S: mudra, mantra, mandala (yantra sacred geometry) marma (meridian points) and mauna (silence at the end of this generating of massive amounts of energy.)
Some Tantric schools advocate the total experiencing and embracing of all polarities and their experiences/expressions in order to enter non duality; some advocate the full coming into the world from within the silence of the Self in order to express, discover, delight in and embody the Self both within and without.
Most Tantric Lineages have outer Tantras, available to the general public, and which can be done with other people/a partner; Inner Tantras which are done within yourself; and Secret Tantras, which are imparted by a living Tantric Master or directly from the Lineage to the Tantric Adept in meditation after they have mastered outer and inner tantras to a degree.
Sexual energy is about 20% of the Tantric Way. Many Tantric Masters are also celibate and have mastered all 3 levels of Tantra within their own self. Many Tantric Masters have also mastered all 3 levels of Tantra utilising their sexual practice with partners or a partner. Making love is not a pre requisite for the Tantric path. Take note!
However, it is widely acknowledged that the fastest way to Awakening is to include sexuality and Tantric lovemaking with a partner, as then nothing is left out on the path. One becomes naked, literally and totally. Everything is exposed, nothing can be hidden, intellectualised, conceptualised or abstracted upon on the meditation cushion or yoga mat.
The height of Tantric sexuality is the Yabyum tantric practice, the penultimate Tantric practice given to a Tantric Adept to lead one into enlightenment as a Secret Tantra. This means one has to have done a huge amount of inner work before doing this practice. Yabyum involves all the energies of an individual, which is why it is so potent. In the Buddhist Tantric tradition it is a practice to enter emptiness. In the western hierogamos tradition, it is more about dissolving into divine love and sacred union with your soulmate as the fullness of emptiness.
Tantra is the fast, direct bullet path Way to Awakening, as nothing is left out in the authentic Tantric path. It is the alchemy of transformation that uses everything in your life, everything in creation, to transform you. Everything becomes fuel for the Tantrika to evolve, to embrace, to experience, to accept, to live, to embody. It is a Way of Life.
Our sexuality, all the spectrum of our emotions, our breath, our messiness, our drama, our bliss, our embodiment, our physicality, all of our energies, all our vibrational states, the architecture of creation, mind and no mind, gods and no gods, demons and angels, flow, presence, delight, love …all are included as fuel on the Tantric Path. Nothing is left out and everything in your life becomes a tantric practice, from looking after your kids, washing the dishes, sitting in a forest, drinking tea, to meditation, ecstasy and simple, ordinary yet ever present presence. This Presence is within and amidst all activities, underlying all your experiences, actions and behaviours.
Tantra has become more widespread, and more misrepresented in this current age precisely because it offers us a vastly accelerated, no bullshit and embodied pathway into Enlightenment. It challenges us to directly confront all that we fear, judge and despise in ourselves and others, and provokes us to face every part of our own self that is absent of love and compassion. It is a path for the courageous hero daka and heroine dakini who have the burning desire for total transformation, whatever the cost. This is what defines a Tantrika, until this term too is dissolved in the fire of emptiness and love.
