Tantra Discussion from “What is Tantra?”
The comment from Australia is a good example of the point of my yesterday’s blog.
I’m sure there is wonderful tantra in Australia, and people gaining many experiences from it, and perhaps helping people realize a non-dual nature of existence. And I’m sure there are very well thought out techniques, schools of thought, and practices as well. I think its great, certainly better than hanging out in a pub. Same in America.
I just wonder what it has to do with a Tantric Tradition from India that has been handed down guru to disciple for 1000’s of years. Maybe I was a slow learner and there might be enhanced learning aids today, but it took me probably 20 of my 40 years in an esoteric lineage in India, AFTER I had learned Hindi and Sanskrit, to come to any understanding of Tantra, notwithstanding the slogans and cliches.
Finding a tantric guru is easy, there must be a hundred pages or more on Google; finding a lineage with the goods is a different story, as anyone who has spent time in India involved with this would tell you. And finding a lineage in which English is spoken can turn out to be a long quest. Acceptance in an esoteric tradition anywhere is not a given, contrary to popular culture. Lots of cash always helps, but even a true seeker of knowledge requires a great deal of perseverance to be accepted in elite circles, which is the nature of tantric tradition.
The fact of the matter is that regardless of claims of independence or autonomy, Tantra comes from India, is an Indian thing, even an Indian word. Its appearance in Australia and the West in popular culture was by means of representation. Mainly books, at best written by well educated academics who translated collected texts with no exposure to the context of their authors, at worst written by people with little understanding of Indian Culture, using sex as a marketing tool for either their product, service, or ideology.
There are some quite wonderful books out there written by some wonderful people, Mark Dykowsky, David Frawley, and several others. Their books are well informed, well written, and enlightening. But reading them, studying them, believing in them has nothing to do with becoming a tantric.
A Speech of function, of operation, of connection with a largely unseen world (which is the nature of Tantric Speech) is translated into a Speech of ideas and concepts in competition with each other. Not Hindi to English, or anything quite so simple.
We may be entertained and enlightened by the idea-generating power of the information, but with a lack of the context a tradition provides, the ideas generated have no connection with the thing itself. Our current discourse is largely defined by a fierce competition among ideas, beliefs, narratives, and brands, and our Speech is likewise the means by which this happens. The Tantric doesn’t have to believe in anything except maybe that his lineage is legitimate.
Let’s talk about the primacy of the body. In a number of India’s Wisdom Traditions that have, of course, spilled into Indian culture, we understand the human body to be around for a maximum of 100 years, and that towards the end of its existence, it often becomes troublesome. And we service it well as our home during this kind of existence. We look to take advantage of our consciousness having density, the corporeality of human existence. But we also understand it is a necessary limitation of our true nature which is beyond duality. We think of liberation as the final goal of human life, and we live our life mindful of that ultimate goal.
I’ll be blunt. The West is obsessed with physical culture, and has superimposed a physical culture on top of yoga. We want yoga teachers who work out with weights, not who will teach us the secrets of our inner being. We want to make Tantra physical culture as well, it’s much easier that way, and much more fun… I guess.
