So….. what is Tantra? And why would I care?
Like all words, Tantra is a finger pointing to a moon. The word encapsulates a vast network of meanings rich with implication, interpretation and associations. In the so-called modern world the word may link into the neural networks of your brain and bring an image of Sting having a nine hour orgasm, or perhaps the ubiquitous image of a woman sitting in a man’s lap staring deeply into his eyes trying to enlighten him with her beauty, or the sound of her breath. One of my teachers used to say, rather tongue-in-cheek, that “Tantra has become something people think you do with your clothes off at night with a lot of incense.” Though none of these, perhaps slightly defiled, definitions of the word are completely absent from the tradition, the actual depth and scope of Tantra has very little to do with any external sexual practices. Rather, the real heart of Tantra is in its consciously creative use of inner technologies of the body-mind to generate realities.
The culture and context of Tantra is that of ancient India and Tibet, wherein the classical languages of Sanskrit and Tibetan described and preserved a cosmo vision of the nature of the human body, mind, and spirit, with an eloquence and precision not so woven into the English programmed, so-called “western” mind. As we endeavor to explore Tantra in the current context, the one I clumsily assume you are reading from within, we rely on somewhat gross words such as “energy”, “oneness”, and “awakening”. Often vague, usually confusing and undefined, these words leave much space for incorrect interpretations.
In the culture of Tantra Yoga evolving through Sanskrit and Tibetan, the precision of the words used meant having several specific terms for each kind of subtle energy, aspect of consciousness, and facet of awakening. It is important, I have come to believe, to massage one’s mental continuum with at least the notion of this expansion in the ways we relate, and thus manifest, our conception of both ourselves, and our worlds. In this way, we begin to rise ourselves up and into the culture and tradition of Tantra, rather than draw it into the colonial capitalist reductionist framework most of us have been conditioned to view the world from within. I mention this distinction simply as a preface to begin to loosen the grip of the mind on it’s previously held, often unconscious, belief structures. A kind of foreplay for the mind to warm it up to receive. Sometimes the best way to begin to fathom something, is to prune away that which blocks out the light. Which is precisely what Tantra is pointing towards. The most radiant and pure clear light of bliss any being, in any dimension, will ever imagine. Prakāśa.
When we look at the word Tantra conceptually, we can engage with it in a variety of ways. Firstly we should understand that ‘tantras’ can be referring specifically to certain texts. In perhaps its most essential use, the word tantra refers to collections of scriptures within a spiritual tradition. For example, there are Vedic Tantras and Buddhist Tantras. Within those broad collections there are branching lineages each with collections of tantras, like Kaula, Shaivite, or Trika tantras within the Vedic framework, and Mahāyana and Vajrāyana tantras in the Buddhist canon. The classification of lineages is not the focus of our exploration of Tantra at this time, so I will not elaborate any further. Simply, it is essential to mention that perhaps the most literal and direct meaning of the word tantra, is simply a particular body of scriptural text.
Beyond that, there are several other definitions of the word Tantra which I have come across in my studies. The definition which seems to encapsulate the technology of Tantra most evocatively is ‘to weave’. In one sense, to weave is to bring several threads of meaning together into one complete understanding, or view, of the nature of reality. In another sense, to weave, is to merge multiple practices together to create a complete fabric of continuous practice. Tantra elucidates that all reality is an interdependent woven field, wherein all phenomena are relational. No singular, independent entity can exist by itself without relation. Tantra described relativity theory long before Einstein.
In the Vedic Tantra of Shaivite, Kaula and Trika based lineages this relational existence is depicted at its most essential level as the interdependence of Śiva (consciousness) and Śaktī (the power of manifesting expression) eternally woven into one another in a cosmic dance, or weave, of infinite bliss. In the Buddhist lineages this relational field is referred to, in keeping with the Buddhist framework of arriving at truth not by positing an absolute substance but by illuminating what it is not, as Emptiness. It may be bold to suggest here that these two differing definitions could be describing the same essentially indescribable truth, but from either vantage point, it is necessary to accustom oneself to this view of dependent arising as the nature of reality, no matter what lineage you wish to engage in Tantra from within, for the technology itself to be effective.
When we comprehend, and eventually integrate, the correct view of Emptiness (or the Śiva-inseparable-from-Śakti model) that all of our experience is arising dependent on everything else, we begin to see that we create our reality. If everything we see, taste, touch etc, arises dependent on all the other realities, thought-forms, belief structures, actions etc, we can consciously alter the reality we experience by altering our thoughts and actions. This is what is referred to as ‘Karma’. All thoughts and actions, karmas, are causes for relative effects. When we begin to ‘hack’ this latently unconscious software by becoming aware of its existence we can begin changing our thoughts and actions to ones which will create effects we desire. This is where the Tantra teachings have bled, or perhaps more acutely have been siphoned, into much of our ‘new age’ lingo and the Neo-Tantra movement. Works like ‘The Secret’ and the workshop circuit Tantra of new age cultures talking about manifesting one’s reality, creating your dream life, following your bliss, and sex magic rituals are all drawing from the traditions of Tantra.
When we ultimately realize the full import of this relational field of interdependence, the natural result is not just the fulfillment of desires, but the actual cessation of the conception of desire. This most profound realization of emptiness and the laws of karma illuminate a knowing that all realities are already “yours” so-to-speak, and there is a sense of cutting one’s desires at their roots. Which in turn becomes a cause for liberation. For example, one may, due to the various saṃskāras (impressions left on the mind from previous actions), find themselves in desirous lust for a beautiful woman. She is everything and nothing, the lady of the endless night, woman of your dreams, soulmate, the whole story. The longing for her emits its own scent; it is so potent. But you are a practicing yoginī, and so you meet the desire knowing it is the path. You first realize that you can generate the causes to attain her, and/or any other woman you might weave into your fantasy. You take it further, and realize that she is already not only yours, but is you, and thereby cut your desire off from the fertile soil of the ignorant false view that you and her are some separate existent realities that aren’t already consummated in the infinite yab-yum dependent arising banquet of delight; wisdom. The Tantrika re-orients their dṛṣṭi (focus, gaze) towards the ultimate view at every apparent intersection of life streams, meditating upon the true nature of all phenomena. The desire, the longing for something “outside” oneself, evaporates in the cremation ground of practice.
It is important to note here that the Tantra schools of the Vedic rooted lineages (Śakta/Śaivite/Kaula/Trika etc.) due to their conviction in an absolute all-pervading consciousness, the ‘Anuttaram’ , a kind of super-soul which permeates both good and evil polarities, hold an importantly different view of the import of the law of Karma than that of the Tantrik Buddhists. In the Parātrīśikāvivaraṇa, this Anuttaram is defined “the unsurpassable Divine Consciousness is so called…. Because it is the Experient of all, and there is none other that can make it his object of experience. It is the universal subject par excellence… the eternal Universal Subject of all experience.” The notion that there is one universal subject, a kind of “capital S” Self, solicits a view that all phenomena are the will of the same creative consciousness, and are thus all fundamentally equanimous in nature, and even value.
In Sir John Woodroffe’s perhaps controversial work ‘The Garland of Letters’ the notion from the creationary theory of this ‘Absolute Self’ paradigm explains how even the force which veils it’s nature from itself, the principle of māyā which is often seen as a hindrance on the spiritual path in most Vedic based systems, in the Tantra schools is considered as yet another aspect, or Goddess incarnation, of that same Anuttara, the Absolute Consciousness. Woodroffe quotes the Tattva-Sandoha “Māyā is the sense of difference in all Jīvas [experients] which are but parts of Her. Just as the shore holds in the sea, so She ever obstructs the manifestation of Ātmā, which but for Her is otherwise unobstructed.”
In this view, even the veiling principle, that which causes the confusion and illusion is deified and seen as both the cause and desired effect of the resulting ignorance. The implications of this view in regards to Karma and the science of skillful means to liberation are significant. If the same Absolute consciousness is responsible for all the pleasure and pain, the Kāma and Krodha, bliss and wrath, then all realities are fundamentally equal. Not neutral in the sense of devoid of a charge, but valued equally. What then would be the motivating factor to pursue a spiritual path at all?
If all actions are equally divine and blissful from the perspective of that Absolute Self, if the most wretched hellish existence is just as much the will of that all-pervading consciousness as the most delightful heavenly realms of endless light body orgasm and hot springs, then there is no need whatsoever to alter one’s actions towards the benefit of all beings. In essence, there is no need for morality, or an understanding of the nature of Karma to propel oneself beyond the cyclical nature of ignorance resulting in unskillful or ‘non-virtuous’ actions, and thus further and further elaborations of Chaos. In fact, in these schools the notion of Chaos is also simply another facet of the Goddess, and requires no remedy. In this view, all the varying wrathful and pleasing forms are all simply that same One, complete, Absolute Anuttaram. Accordingly there is no need to alter one’s actions, but rather simply relax and enjoy the roller coaster ride of heaven, hell and everything in between. The acclaimed buddhist scholar Robert Thurman facetiously teases that these states of being are like God realms of infinite jacuzzis, where all is just pleasurable.
There seems to be a spectrum of extremity to which that view is held throughout the Absolute Self postulating traditions, and in no way am I attempting to assert that all hold a radical amoralistic view. I do however offer the inquiry here into some of the implications of the attitude that the same entitized consciousness wills both demise and flourishing, as in my personal experience living from within it can cause a kind of rationalization or justification of ill deed. Robert Thurman uses the term ‘unskillful action’ which helps to perhaps soften the edge of morality that spikes some of us wading through the residue of a Catholic hypocrisy which apparently held to a strict moral code, yet continued to unskillfully slaughter a great majority of our pagan ancestors. But I digress.
The Tantrik scholar Christopher Wallis, for example, though speaking of the “one infinite divine consciousness, free and blissful…. The unbounded Light of Consciousness [which] contracts into finite embodied loci of awareness of its own free will…” also refines the definition of karma as different to the notion of kriyā clarifying an important differentiation. He states that, “there is an important distinction to be made between “kiryā” and karma. Both words mean “action”, but karmic actions (defined as volitional actions motivated by an expected result) bind the individual soul and restrict her freedom, whereas actions that partake of kriyā-śakti are, like all the śaktis [goddesses of powers], absolutely free and thus not part of the usual karmic system.” This distinction implies that the laws of action are different depending on the vantage point of the experient, as in from the perspective of the Absolute, actions are all inherently bliss-creating, whereas actions from the perspective of the individual soul are binding and potentially suffering-creating. This distinction however seems to further seed the scent of dualistic thinking.
In the Buddhist framework the understanding of Karma as the intrinsic nature of cause and effect, or actions and their results, means that the reality we find ourselves in, both individually and collectively, is the result of our previous actions. There is no distinction between how the law of Karma works based on one’s level of spiritual realization, or plane of vantage. Karma applies to the exquisite Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and the plain girls chopping wood and carrying water. This universality of karma is precisely what makes skillful action the key to resultant perfected realms, to self-generation as the Deity. If what we are seeing is a world, both internal and external, filled with suffering, disease and death, we can infer that we have planted the seeds for these things in our minds through our previous negative, or ‘impure’ actions. Impure, in this context, meaning coming from ignorance of the true nature of reality. Conversely, if what we are seeing is a pure and blissful awakened land full with ecstatic and peaceful awakened buddha beings, we can infer that we have likewise planted the seeds for such realities through our previous pure actions.
In the Tantrik view, no being takes negative actions unless they are ignorant to the nature of reality, and thus we can infer that we ourselves and all the beings we are relationally arising in a vibrational match with and materially experiencing as real, have come to a relative state of impurity due to our shared ignorance. Once we establish ourselves firmly in this understanding, we can begin to change our actions into ones coming from Wisdom, the correct view of the nature of reality, and thus begin to manifest a new world of complete purity and clarity. A bliss realm; a veritable Shangri-la.
By changing the causes for our suffering, replacing non-virtuous actions with virtuous ones, we can shape our future outcomes. We become designers. This is the process of transforming one’s entire reality through consistent and dedicated practice. If we contemplate the inverse, that this world of suffering is inherently real and self existent, it would make every spiritual path essentially void of promise. If a Conscious Absolute omnipotent subjective Self is responsible for willfully generating the suffering realms of it’s own desirous will to create, then there is absolutely no way out, and the possibility to fulfill one’s spiritual potential to awaken completely becomes inert. Both Vedic and Buddhist Tantrik traditions however, are creative paths, and thus harness and play with the patterns of karma at work. Now that we have established the view, let us step into the art.
In the terminology of Tantra, this path of consciously creating one’s reality through wisdom can be beautifully delineated through three words; Yantra, Mantra and Mudra. First we generate the Yantra, we establish oneself within a correct view of reality. Then we begin meditating upon the Mantra, we focus our mind upon the mental vibration of our desired results. Finally we embody the Mudra, we practice weaving this awareness of the Yantra and Mantra into our every action. All of creation follows this path, and Tantra illuminates the map to harness the power of creation and thus become a conscious creator of reality. The practitioner becomes aware of herself as the Goddess.
A Yantra is both a physical diagram representing a view of reality, and the view itself. A mantra is both a syntactical collection of sounds and meaning, and a vibrational seed code of a specific reality. A mudra is both a physical posturing or shape made with the body, and a lived physical expression of a desired state of existence. In the application of Tantra, this process of holding a view, naming it into being, and expressing its form, a process all sentient beings undergo subconsciously, is made conscious, and the manifestation of one’s universe becomes a creative path. Every action is imbued with this map, and the so-called mundane world is made sacred.
This way of engaging with reality as a conscious creative construction can be applied for all kinds of purposes, and the variety of lineages within the scope of Tantra use the technology for different aims. Most lineages have some form of Deity or Guru Yoga practice, wherein the practitioner works with a particular realized being; a god, goddess, buddha, or mentor and applies this technology to synchronize her mind with the mind of that being. When everything arises dependent upon everything else, when nothing can exist “from it’s own side” so-to-speak, or, independently, the natural extension of this understanding is that nothing exists inherently. The self that we have become habituated to consider as our “real self”, is not some fixed, independent reality. Our perceived personality, for example, is not some static truth that binds us to a fixed identity. With this understanding we can apply the apt slogan of Dr. Joe Dispenze when he says “our personality creates our personal reality”, and we begin changing our personality to change our personal reality, our Yantra, from the bottom up.
The self is self-generated. Thus, in Tantra, we can begin to shift our conception towards ourselves as our chosen Deity. By continuously abiding in the wisdom appreciation that we ourselves generate both our identity and expression, both subject and object, we align the power of the mind to the mental continuum of the Deity, or Buddha. At some stage the residue from these new seeds will outweigh the residue from the previous seeds we have unconsciously conditioned ourselves to believe we are, and we will experience ourselves as the actual Deity or Buddha. This process of karmic residue composting may occur in a flash of sudden insight and appear instantaneous, or it may be a gradual steadfast journey.
This broad view of the potential of Tantrik practice perhaps requires some imagination and loosening of the knots in one’s mind to fathom, let alone fully comprehend, but it is the ultimate view of Tantra and one which requires mentioning in any honest effort to share the tradition. It is one I have found often left out, perhaps in an assumption that it would not be understood, yet is one that I sense without which the full potential of where this path can and will take us is lost. The absence of a description of the path to complete realization from any practice of Tantra narrows and reduces the path of its meaning, its nectar, its ambrosial essence. A stream of bliss I wish for all living beings to dip their tongues into, like straws of indestructible light sipping eternally from the banquet of ceaseless joy. This bliss is the effect I hope these words will serve as rippling cause for.
The same technology framework described in this path towards complete enlightenment found in Traditional Tantra can be applied to quote unquote simpler goals as well, which is where some may choose to aim their arrows. I use the word simpler almost facetiously, because really, having any other goal than complete realization and enlightenment is probably the least simple thing we could ever do as sentient beings cycling around in the ocean of saṃsara’s beginningless wheel of birth, death and rebirth. The complexity of potential ways to get trapped in horrible hellish states of existence as a result of negative harmful actions taken towards others due to ignorance, a startlingly common and even normalized thing in regular day-to-day life of modern human beings, is as far from simple as I can imagine. Whether you’ve used your manifestation powers and got a tesla, a sexy rich husband, an acreage, or any of your conditioned minds’ fantasies or not, swirling around in samsara provides no lasting relief to suffering. Ultimately the simplest path that exists is the clear, concise path of steadily freeing oneself from that cycle completely. The path of enlightenment.
At any rate, for the sake of understanding and direct, usable application of these principles we can consider other aims one might adopt in their practice of Tantra. Let’s say your desired state of being is to be more free and joyful. To begin, you would envision yourself as the most free and joyful being you can imagine. Generating a yanta within your awareness, a kind of mental image of who you would be, what you would feel like, what you would look like. You would map this image of yourself in your mind, like a kind of subtle drawing or conception of a felt sense of the plane of yourself as this free and joyful avatar. In a sense, you begin generating a kind of deity which personifies the state of being you desire.
Then, you assume a mental mantra, a vibrational map that describes either in established language or a vibrational resonance of your own creation, the state of being you are weaving into form. Your word becomes an incantation. The modern practice of having a personal “mantra”, which is usually a kind of affirmation, is directly derived from Tantra, yet lacks the full potential due to missing information about the other facets of the path. A positive affirmation alone, say “I am Free and Joyful” written on a post-it-note and placed on your refrigerator door will not have the intense energy potential of a Tantrik mantra practice if the corresponding yantra and mudra to this affirmation are not practiced. Without a visualization in the mind of the realm wherein this affirmation naturally abides, and the respective embodied actions it invokes, the words alone are basically hollow.
With your Yantra and Mantra vibrating in your awareness, thirdly you begin to enact yourself as that free and joyful being you imagine. Realizing always that the self you feel yourself to be in your current state is not a fixed inherent reality, you hack your own mind and start to generate the self that you wish to see. You act out the yantra and mantra in every action, thus becoming their embodiment. Sometimes this notion of “acting” lends an association of “inauthenticity” or being fake. Especially within the paradigm of modern psychology frameworks and the rising fascination with authentically expressing even the traditionally “negative” emotions such as anger. To address this, we must again orient ourselves to the view of Emptiness, the lack of an inherent self-existent self, and thus remember that all the facets of this self are stories we tell ourselves. We can choose to tell ourselves a new story, realizing we are already storytelling, and perhaps our story is ripe to evolve. Perhaps even, the story is more your grandmother’s inherited story and we might well dream a different dream and upgrade our system’s software.
By consciously and creatively enacting the Mudra we bring the whole path to life and the free and joyful being you desire to become begins her process of ripening as you continuously direct your awareness to her path. You orient your mind continuously towards her Yantra, Mantra, and Mudra, and as simultaneously as possible. You meditate upon the field, resonance and expression of her essence, and the object of your attention becomes your personality, because you. At some stage within the non-linear particle-wave duality of cosmic time, your personal reality will be the mirror image of this new version of yourself. Robert Lester Peck, in his book ‘The Golden Triangle’, describes this trinity of powers attentively, if you’d like further elaboration.
In traditional Tantra we rely upon Deities, Gurus and Buddhas and their described yantras, mantras and mudras to practice this technology because the aim is to go completely beyond the regular conception of the “normal” or “mundane” self we have been conditioned to enact. Rather than simply play in our limited self playgrounds where we may wish to be more successful, happier, wealthier or the like, we aim our practice towards embodying the quality of mind of an awakened being whose scope of vision and understanding supersedes all these finite, transmigratory qualities of a conditioned mind. The technology can be applied for any aim though, however material it may be, and will lead to relative associated results.
It is important though for the benefit of yourself, and all your relations, that you consider the potential effects of any of your potential aims, as this technology is powerful and can ripple into great undulating waves of destruction just as well as it can generate the clear light of bliss. This is why it is recommended to endeavour for the qualities of a benevolent mentor (a deity, guru, buddha etc.) rather than pursue one’s own mental fantasies. After all, these mental fantasies are mere imprints on the mind from previous actions. It is quite likely that by applying this technology towards self-absorbed aims such as material wealth will water the lusting, thirsty, trickster energies with your precious attention, and they will arise in your field in a variety of costumes. This is another reason why lineage is so highly valued in a practice of Tantra. Trusting that others have practised and successfully attained the various states of enlightenment, and that you are following their clear instructions, greatly reduces the risk of dangerous mistakes leading to great difficulties and thus further acruition of potentially harmful karmas.
ॐ
So then, how does this all apply to the yoga practices we are familiar with in the modern paradigm? Interestingly, much of the yoga that is practised in yoga studios and the like is actually heavily influenced by Tantra. Christopher Wallis, mentioned above, refers to modern yoga as a highly “tantracized” form of hatha yoga. Essentially, yoga teachers are helping their students feel better in their bodies, transforming themselves. A desired state of health, flexibility and fitness is established, a jargon and lingo is utilised to generate that state (often there is even a kind of “yoga voice” that is used as some kind of attempt to coax the mind towards a state of being), and the body is guided through a series of shapes where the aim of wellness is held as a general goal.
Though the traditional schema is roughly being applied, this reason for practising yoga is actually quite new and not at all what the classical yogis were up to when they were developing hatha yoga. Much of the old school hatha yoga was about controlling the body to achieve certain particular states of consciousness, develop special powers called siddhis, and regulate the left and right side energy channels to free up subtle energy stored in the body for meditation. Most of the modern yoga we see today doesn’t hold these goals in the view of why to practice yoga, but it is interesting to observe the way aspects of the various traditions have woven into each other. To understand the traditional aims of Tantra Yoga, we have to understand the culture from which they came.
The practices of Tantra arose within a highly evolved yogic culture and context. Patanjali’s yoga sūtras are dated back to the second century bce, and the earlier Tantrik texts arose from the first century ce and onwards. The practices of both evolved culturally and contextually very much together, and both systems have been woven into a complete practice in the various lineages of both Vedic and Buddhist frameworks. It is difficult for even the great scholars of these traditions to tease apart the varying influences the different systems had upon each other, and this is not a field of my expertise. But at any rate, in many ways they continue to influence one another, and we find ourselves in modern yoga culture weaving a wild webbed mixture of tradition and modernity.
In most studio yoga classes we are guided through a series of yogāsanas (yoga postures), praṇāyama (breathing exercises) and meditations. We might get a brief mention of some of the bandhas (energy locks), or the teacher might chant a mantra they may or may not know the meaning of. Various limbs of a yoga practice are touched on, usually with a strong emphasis on the postural aspect. This approach makes sense if the desired state we are employing the technology for is, let’s say, fitness. If our desired state, the desired effect we are hoping our yoga practice will be the cause for, is something else, we may find our practice of postural yoga alone not accelerating us towards our goal.
This brings about the question of what exactly we are holding as a definition of spirituality and spiritual practice in the modern yoga culture. If we were to infer the beliefs of these posturally focused yoga contexts, we might derive that their definition of spirituality would be something like “feeling healthy in the body”, or “being connected to the body.” Often, Tantra is similarly materialised in the modern approaches to the traditions. Sometimes referred to as “Neo-Tantra”, these body-based spiritual cultures usually have a strong emphasis on the concept of embodiment. Embodiment being the felt sense of being aware of one’s own body and subtle energy, and acting, or flowing, from that place of reference and identity.
Though in traditional Tantra the body is seen as an aspect of the path and a means for realising the various desired states of awakened awareness and deity consciousness, optimization of the body was never considered as any kind of end goal or purpose for practice. Even ten hour valley orgasms were never seen as the point of practice, and certainly not achieving a state of physical fitness. Essentially, reducing the goal of these practices to bodily states or outcomes not only strips the tradition of its power and potential, it contracts the perspective of the practitioner back into the very state of body small ‘I’ ego identification the traditions set out to liberate practitioners from.
From the perspective of Tantra Yoga, the āsana, praṇayama and bandha component of a complete practice, one’s sadhana, are utilised as efficient ways of freeing up energy in the body which is then directed towards the meditation practice, the actual Yoga of generating and embodying the Yantra, Mantra and Mudra. With the understanding of the body as a complex and intricate network of 72,000 channels of subtle energy the postural practice is considered an essential way of keeping that entire network supple. The understanding is that when this energetic system is optimised, the natural dissolution of the contracting ego identifying self will easefully occur. The aim of keeping the body healthy and the channels lubricated and flowing is the merging of the self-identifying separateness to the infinite.
Of these 72,000 channels there are three which hold primary import, and are central to all the yoga practices. The most subtle and important is called the central channel, the suṣumṇa, which runs centrally between the left and right halves of the body and a little more towards the spine than the belly. It starts in front of the base of the spine, or the base of the sexual organ depending on the tradition’s system of analysis. It runs upwards to the crown where it arches forward and pools at the third eye, the space between the eyebrows in towards the centre of the head slightly. This central channel is considered the primary flow of spiritual energy. Spiritual here meaning the nature of wisdom, the inseparable bliss and emptiness.
On either side of this central channel of subtle energy are the right and left side channels, the sun and moon channels, called ida and piṇgala. The sun channel is a warm energy channel responsible for functions like heating the body, nourishing the left hemisphere of the brain and its corresponding faculties, and the associated qualities of the hot emotions like anger or passion. The left side channel is a cool energy channel responsible for functions like cooling the body, nourishing the right hemisphere of the brain and its corresponding faculties, and the associated qualities of the cool emotions like tranquillity or fear.
The right channel is also sometimes called the ‘speech channel’ or the ‘channel of the subjective holder’ as explained in the book ‘Clear Light of Bliss’ by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. This last reading alludes to the nature of this channel to cause the generation of conceptions of the subjective mind. Whereas the left channel is referred to as the “body channel’ or the ‘channel of the held object’ illuminating how this channel generates the conception of an object to be held by the mind. This languaging helps to elucidate an understanding of the subtler qualities of the side channels. It reveals their qualities as the relational polarities of subject and object duality. The teaching is that when our energy is primarily in the left and right side channels, we experience ourselves as dualistic, separate, polarised individuals. We experience the world as outside and separate from ourselves. Whereas when our energy comes into the central channel, we experience a non-self state of connection to all of creation, and finally a sense of no separation whatsoever. We become one with the multiverse. This; is Yoga.
In the ‘Parātrīśikā-vivaraṇa’, a text revealing the secret mysticism of Tantra it is explained “When there is the dissolution of prāṇa and apāna in suṣumnā which, as the central channel, is full of the energy of all the senses, then one’s consciousness gets entry into that stage of the great central suṣumnā channel where it acquires union with the pulsation of one’s śakti, then all sense of duality dissolves and there is the perfect I-consciousness generated by the abundance of the perfection of one’s own inherent śakti. Then by one’s entry into the union of śiva and śakti, which consists in the bliss of their essential nature of manifestation and of the energy of the great mantra of perfect I-consciousness, there is the manifestation of the akula or anuttara (absolute) Bhairava nature which is beyond all differentiation, unalterable, and eternal.” The terms prāṇa and apāna here refer to the upward and downward flows of energy in the side channels. This description, though perhaps laden with technical terminology, reveals the essence of the goal of yoga.
Now let us return to the depiction of the energy body. The two side channels loop around the central channel at various axis points lending the energy centres often called the chakras. The Sanskrit word ‘chakra’ means ‘ a wheel’, and many traditions consider these centres as spinning disc-like vortexes each with specific qualities. In the Tibetan Tantra system, they are often referred to as knots, rather than wheels, because the sun and moon channels are seen to loop around the central channel and block the flow of energy from, and into, the network of other channels. Most descriptions of these energy centres along the central channel refer to them as either lotuses with particular numbers of petals, or wheels with a certain number of spokes. Whether knots or wheels, the manner in which the energy at these centres moves is understood to affect all the bodies’ processes including, perhaps most importantly in the context of yoga, the spiritual path.
With this general schema in mind, we can begin to view the entire collection of āsana, praṇāyama and bandha from an important new depth. All of the classical practices of yoga were designed to unlock and optimise the spiritual energy in the central channel by loosening the knots at the energy centres, increasing the flow of energy through these centres, or decreasing in the case of a disease state caused by excess, and eventually generating an immense amount of energy potential through the entire body which can then be directed into the central channel upon intensely focused meditation.
In the Tibetan Buddhist traditions it is taught that when all the energy currents, the winds of the body, can be deliberately drawn into the central channel through the yogi’s meditative awareness, the heat generated there will melt what is called the “indestructible drop” at the heart, which causes the complete perfection of wisdom; the clear light of bliss. In the Vedic Tantra traditions this centre point at the heart is sometimes called the ‘hṛdayabīja’ or heart-seed. Throughout the scriptures of both Buddhist and Vedic Tantra, the centre of the heart is considered a mystical place holding great mystery, and is often used as a focal point for intense meditation. In the Vijñāna-Bhairava it is said “With one’s sense faculties dissolved in the space of the heart–in the innermost recess of the Lotus–with one’s attention on nothing else: O blessed Lady, one will obtain blessedness.”
This view of the goal of yoga is mystical in nature because it eludes all words, descriptions and elaborations. The ‘indestructible drop’ is perhaps one of the most quintessential examples of words like fingers pointing at the moon, a mere signpost to guide the sincere aspirant to her meditation seat to seek direct instruction and insight. It is incredibly meaningful to situate oneself in a view of where one’s practice is going, no matter how far away that may seem from where we now sit. In alignment with our previously established view of emptiness and karma, we can realise here that by attuning our mind to the full blooming potential of our yoga practice, we are quite literally planting the karmic seed for it to be actualized. If not in this lifetime, perhaps in one of the seven or so subsequent ones. The tunnel of saṃsara may seem long and exhausting, but once you see the light at its end, sometimes thought of as it’s perfectly still centre, the clear light the many realised beings continuously offer us guidance towards, you can relax knowing where and what you’re working for. Complete peace. Complete perfection. Clear light. Bliss. Now doesn’t this bring greater meaning to your śavāsana?
ॐ
I began my weave into Tantra from a charming kind of ignorance. Attracted to Nepal fresh out of highschool I found myself living in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery on the outskirts of Kathmandu. I learned nothing of actual Buddhism, Tantra or Yoga there, my karma not yet ripe for realisations, but simply immersed myself in the culture and perhaps accrued some positive merit by teaching the young monks English. My path then led me down the Kaula Tantra path, where I studied at an ashram in south India for several extended stays over the course of five years. I now find myself back in the Buddhist Tantra family, slowly embarking on a deep path of study where I hope to continue integrating the various systems of Tantra.
What I have found so far, that I find immeasurably valuable, is that the many popularised practices of yoga, namely āsana, in the modern culture can become highly useful tools on the path of consciously creating one’s reality by practising Tantra, when approached from a more integrated place. At present, it is as though we have culturally appropriated an extremely powerful mystical vehicle for enlightenment, only we don’t have a map of where to direct the vehicle, or even an appreciation of what we are riding in. We are so secularised we are timid to even orient ourselves to the map. We are resultantly accelerating a powerful tool for awakening towards the conditioned goals of improving our bodies’ measurable materiality, competing towards construed physical ideals, and simply trying to relieve ourselves of stress momentarily as a kind of capitalist demise coping strategy. And we wonder why Jeff Bezos is flying to take a gander at Mars while the Amazon is on fire.
It seems to me that this reduction in the potential impact of yoga is not only a kind of insult to the depth and scope of the lineages, but also a kind of consolation prize where the true gift of life could be reached for. With the continuing collective imagining of less and less time for what we enjoy, it is even more vital that we make efficient use of precious time for spiritual practice. When we establish a clear, precise ground for the cause for our practice, the why of what we are doing, then we naturally will direct this energy towards the fulfilment of this aim.
Actually, that is simply the nature of life. We’re doing it all the time, unconsciously. Tantra is a technology which is running like a software whether you are aware of it or not. The view you hold in your mind lends the thought-constructs and mental vibrations that write the script for your lived experience, which then materialise as the moving picture of your life. Intercept this process, bring it into the realm of the conscious, and shift your entire narrative to that which you desire. Through an embodied enactment of your vision, your yoga, you shape both the subject and object of your life story.. Direct your yoga practice, the one on the rubber mat, the one on the cushion, the one in your dreams, the one while you wake up from sleep, the one while you eat, the one while you drink, the one while you make love, the one while you die, and all of a sudden your entire spiralling lifetimes are a sacred prayer. Your waking dream becomes an offering towards yourself as the Deity, the Buddha, the Devī and at last you’re seeing from the third eye of all of them. This is Tantra.
The same teacher who said that Tantra has become something people think you do at night with the lights out with a lot of incense used to call our rubber yoga mats, magic carpets. This naming of our mats, something he seemed to find at least mildly annoying due to their capitalist rubber masacre residue, as tools for complete wonderment and transformation is an essentially Tantrik way of framing what we are doing when we practise yogāsana from a Tantrik perspective. We can turn anything and everything into the perfect palace of the Deity, simply by attuning our awareness. And this starts by learning how to relax it, gaining control over it, and consciously, creatively directing it. By dancing it.
I have always been an artist. As a child I spent all my time drawing or making things out of construction paper. Designing realities, I explored the ways we weave our thoughts into form. Tantra is essentially turning one’s mind, and one’s entire life, into the most elaborate sculptural project you can imagine. A sculpture that spans all dimensions and carries through lifetimes. No creative projects can be taken with you throughout the death and rebirth process other than your awareness. There is no better investment plan, no more valuable pursuit, than the cultivation of your mind of awakening. It is with this diamond wish at my heart for all beings, that I do my clumsy best at pointing towards Tantra with words. May this finger pointing to the moon, serve your liberation.
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