TANTRA 101
The internet exposes things related to tantras like workshops, festivals, or personal classes. In contrast, people think this is sex. However, the sex side of tantra is a westernized evolution with history. Spiritual and physical practices were referred to as tantra during this time. They included the development of pleasure and increased desire. Tantra was an activity performed to awaken chakras to achieve intimacy and bliss. That is connection and drive.
The History of Tantra
Tantra started to nourish as a movement within Hinduism and Buddhism around 500 years After the death of Christ. The movement reached its fullest 700 years later. It challenged ideologies and religiously orthodoxy. That grew impulses for low classes to claim places of worship not dictated by priests. In Hinduism, tantra counteracted the Brahmins' Vedic practices, strict adherence to purity rituals. The Buddhism culture grew from the protest movement championed and fueled by ordinary people instead of monks or nuns. Tantra practices confronted the rules head-on and broke them.
Definition Of Tantra
‘Tantra’ comes from Sanskrit and means spreading, spinning out, and putting forth. The word implies weaving traditions. The original tantra practitioners saw it as a system of increasing knowledge or wisdom. That helped them realize that the entire world is interwoven entity.
It's difficult to define what tantra means because it consists of a contradicting range of activities and beliefs. They are consistent and fair across tantrum schools of philosophy.
Beliefs About Tantra
Tantra Focuses on Spiritual Freedom
Tantra is a practical technique used by people for enlightenment or liberation. Gavin Flood, a Hindu studies professor, tantra is about gaining power and liberty through meditation. Tantra practitioners freed themselves from societal and religious contradictions seen as perfect connections with Devine Powers.
Tantra In Mostly Related to Ladies
In Hinduism’s view, the world arose from Lord Shiva and Shakti, Devine male and female. Shiva plants seed, and Shakti provides it with active energy to bring it into existence. Devine female energy is in everyone, as believed by Kundalini, the dormant serpent energy that coils at the base of the spine. Most tantra practices focus on awakening and channeling energy. Tantra practitioners emphasize the cruciality of ladies and their free energy more than Buddhism.
Tantra Practitioners Seek Spiritual Power
Types of Tantras focus on siddhis development, a term used to describe spiritual perfection and superpowers. Practitioners who start comprehending how the world entity is woven together understand that they have complete power over their physical bodies. The physical body is a microcosm for the whole universe entity of their beliefs.
Tantra is a complex term, and as time goes over the knowledge, a debate about the history, origins, and practices arises. There are several tantric texts around the globe, and each takes different philosophical positions. The core aspect of this practice is that it has its origins in the west, although it is still consistent; it's non-dualism.
How Did Tantra Turn Sexy?
Early tantra teachers and scholars criticize modern tantras as having nothing in common with what was practiced over the centuries. Although most tantra practitioners focus on worshiping deities, tantras, and creating visual aids during mediation, there is a potion that focuses on sexuality.
Conservatively, tantric groups that practice ' right-hand tantra' focus on worship while minimizing probationers focused on the sex schedule. The 'left-hand tantra' practitioners focused and dwelled in the opposite direction. They did away with the Indian traditional tendency to categorize activities and experiences as pure or impure. Aspects of life are holy. They see physical experiences as holy and should be used as doors of enlightenment.
Some tantric groups took the practice to the extreme. They performed activities; holding rituals on channel grounds, smearing their bodies with ashes from dead bodies, or meditating on top of a corpse. They ate from skulls, consumed aphrodisiacs, ate fish and meat and used drugs. They engaged in sexual intercourse and were valued. That's because it provided a way of exploring energies. They did not include it as a metaphor alone but made it an important activity. They remained underground to avoid attacks from the main practitioners. Some of the tantric practices are still held in secrecy.
The Bottom Line
Tantra is a historical activity that runs back a thousand years. It is an activity that Hindus and Buddhists started. Tantra is a complex term and as time goes over the knowledge, a debate about the history, origins, and practices arises. There are tantric texts around the globe, and each of them is taken with different philosophical positions. This practice originated from the west, although consistent; with non-dualism. Types of Tantras focus on siddhis development, describing spiritual perfection and superpowers. Practitioners comprehending how the world entity is woven understand that they have complete power over their physical bodies.