TANTRA (part 1) - A (very brief) history

The dharma and yoga of Namastayz adventures is rooted in the ancient Hindu and Buddhist spiritual traditions of TANTRA. Tantra evolved in the area of India, slowly, over many hundreds of years from around the 1st century CE all the way through to the 11th century CE. Around the 6th century is the time when Tantra became popularised as a spiritual tradition and established itself in areas where Vedic traditions were waning in popularity.

Tantra emerged from the Vedic era (a period of time dominated by the teachings, traditions, and practices of the Vedas circa 1500BCE prior and onwards) as a counter culture movement in opposition to a spiritual world dominated by the Vedica (Vedic knowledge and beliefs)

The Vedic era reigned supreme throughout much of the Indus valley area for more than 1000yrs, sitting alongside emerging Buddhism, Jainism, and local shamanic and village religions. The Vedica, however, was a very ritualised and patriarchal platform of knowledge and practice. It was hierarchical and socially exclusive. The Vedic era proposed the glory of the brahmins (the upper caste) as priests, and in doing so excluded both women and lower caste people from the boons of practice. The religious practices of the Vedica were highly involved and strict with a focus on ritualised offerings (including the sacrifice of live animals) of wealth to external Gods (male) in return for blessings and advancement on the spiritual path.

Over time a resentment and energy started to build in opposition to the Vedica's patriarchal, biased, discriminatory, & exclusive beliefs and practices. People began to challenge the notion that the Gods were only "out there", that the ultimate reality was male, & that through offerings of glorified wealth attainment was achieved. So it is from this space that TANTRA is born.

Tantra challenged the Vedic era and the brahmanic priests. It invited women to lead its rituals, included all social castes and people, extolled the belief that shakti (a powerful feminine energy) held the potent energy that is the ground and being of all existence, and that the Goddess is everywhere - she is not only 'out there' but manifests in and as every thing and every experience and moment in existence, including one self. Tantra brought spirituality home to the everyday person in an everyday life, as something that could be practised both internally through yoga, meditation, mantra, chanting, mudra, & yantra, and as pujas (offerings and prayers), rituals, yagyas (fire ceremonies), yatras (pilgrimages), ceremonies, and festivals.

Now lets be clear that there is Hindu Tantra & Buddhist tantra, both evolved concurrently and interdependently, influenced by their own cultures, beliefs and local shamanic practices.

Buddhism made its way up to the Tibetan area and what we call Hinduism (a 19th century religious label) remained largely in India.

The Buddhism of Siddhartha Gautama was also very patriarchal and involved austere practices of renunciation and a very dedicated path that may take lifetimes to reach nirvana (the cessation of suffering and rebirth). TANTRA in a Buddhist context emerged as a more inclusive path of spirituality that through its practices of meditation, visualisation and embodiment of deities, & rituals and practices hastened the path to enlightenment so that it may be achieved in just one dedicated and devoted lifetime.

Ill just pop in here also, that in Hindu tantra there is both a left hand path (darker path of practices) and a right hand path (lighter path of practice). The left hand path emerged in opposition to the very austere, glorified, wealth laden, and 'beautified' rituals of the Vedic brahmins. Instead, the left hand path had (and has - think Aghoris) practices that took place in charnel grounds (a place of open air rotten corpses), cremation grounds and ceremonies, that involve blood offerings, human skull bowls and garlands, human bone adornments and jewellery, scary looking deities, and the consumption of drugs, alcohol, meat, fish and forbidden grains. This left hand path of tantra sits you directly in the path of your enemies (negativities) and asks you to confront and consume them as a way to overcome them.

These kind of confronting practices can also be found in some degree in tantric Buddhism although they do manifest differently (I am reminded here of the Chod practice of meditation - imagining oneself dismembered and devoured by crows), as fierce nature spirits and deities, dakinis, dakas, and Buddhas, and as the higher practices of the path.

Nowadays in Hinduism, tantra is practiced in and of itself and is a direct path to the achievement of siddhis (magical powers) and ultimately communion with the Divine or transcendence. It is the essence of shakta cults - worship of the Divine Feminine, the Goddess as the ultimate reality, and of Shaiva (Lord Shiva) tantra traditions. It manifests in practice as daily rituals, yoga, mantras and chanting, meditation, yagyas, pujas, ceremonies, festivals, bhakti (devotion), (karma) & jnana (spiritual knowledge, wisdom and insight).

In Tantric Buddhism today, otherwise known as Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhism (although different they are very similar), tantra emerges as sacred sexual practices, yabyum (the union of wisdom and compassion - male and female) monastic and lay life, highly evolved visualisations and meditation practices, deity practice, mantras and chanting, mandala practices, empowerments, siddhis, dharma, pujas, rituals and blessings, while the ultimate goal, somewhat different to Hindu tantra, is the cessation of samsara (suffering) and the attainment of nirvana, through the realisation of the emptiness (empty of all independence there is interdependence of all phenomenon), and Buddha-hood.