History of Tantra - Tantra began to blossom as a movement within both Buddhism and Hinduism around A.D. 500, reaching its fullest flowering 500 to 700 years later. It challenged religious orthodoxy and idealistic notions of purity, and grew out of an impulse among the lower classes to claim ways of worship that were not dictated by the priestly castes. Within Hinduism, Tantra countered the Vedic practices of the Brahmins, whose strict adherence to specific, dutifully performed rituals and standards of purity separated them from the lower castes. In Buddhist culture, “it grew out of a protest movement initially championed by lay people rather than monks and nuns,” Tantric practices confronted the rules and sometimes broke them. The definition of Tantra
The word “Tantra” comes from a Sanskrit root that means “to weave,” but it also can imply spinning out, spreading, or putting forth. It can imply the weaving together of traditions into a holistic practice. Tantra’s earliest practitioners saw it as a comprehensive system for extending knowledge and wisdom—for realizing that the whole world is an interwoven entity. Otherwise, the practice of Tantra is not easy to neatly define because it encompasses such a huge, varied, and sometimes contradictory range of beliefs and activities. There are a few aspects, however, that are fairly consistent across the various Tantric schools of thought and philosophical perspectives. Tantra focuses on spiritual freedom. Tantra is a collection of practical techniques for achieving liberation or enlightenment. Gavin Flood, professor of Hindu studies and comparative religion at Oxford University, says, “Tantra is about gaining liberation and power through meditation.” Practitioners were freeing themselves from religious and societal constrictions that were seen as necessary for a “proper” connection with Divine Power.
Tantra is woman centered. In the Hindu Tantric view, the world arises from the erotic dance and union of the divine male (Shiva) and the divine female (Shakti). Shiva plants the seed, but Shakti provides the active energy that brings everything into being. The divine female energy is present in every person (male, female, and otherwise) as kundalini, the serpent energy that coils dormant at the base of the spine. Much of Tantric practice centers on awakening and channeling this energy. (Tantric Buddhism sees the male principle as the more active, but still emphasizes the importance of women and female energy far more than do other forms of Buddhism.) Tantrikas seek spiritual power. Certain kinds of Tantra emphasize developing siddhis—a term which can mean either “spiritual perfection” or “supernatural power.” Tantra practitioners who begin to comprehend the way the world is woven together, understand that they have power over their own bodies, and can also gain power over other aspects of the physical world. In Tantra, the body is seen as a microcosm of the whole universe.
Tantra is a complex and at times controversial body of knowledge; there may be debate around the origins, history, and practice. “There are widely different Tantric texts,” says Guruji, “and different philosophical positions taken by Tantrikas,” or practitioners of Tantra. One core aspect of Tantric philosophy that’s taught in the West, however, remains consistent: nondualism, or the idea that one’s true essence (alternatively known as the transcendental Self, pure awareness, or the Divine) exists in every particle of the universe. Embodiment to Enlightenment Indian spirituality tends to regard the world as an illusion and a trap. It has parallels in Judeo-Christian thought in the way it leans toward a distrust of the body and of the sensory pleasures the body desires. But Tantra insists that every natural creation in the world is the manifestation of divinity, therefore everything and every experience is potentially holy. This trait of Tantra is perhaps its crucial characteristic: Rather than regarding the body and its desires as something to be overcome and purified, Tantra sees the body as a vehicle for enlightenment. Generations of yogis experimented with ways to prepare their bodies so they could carry the enormous energy of awakened kundalini. According to Guruji, “Hatha yoga grew straight out of the concern in Tantra for creating…a body that was totally under the control of the yogi.” Tantra suggests that everything you do and all that you sense, ranging from pain to pleasure and anything in between, is really a manifestation of the Divine and can be a means to bring you closer to your own divinity. “In Tantra, the world is not something to escape from or overcome, but rather, even the mundane or seemingly negative events in day-to-day life are actually beautiful and auspicious,” says Pure Yoga founder Rod Stryker, a teacher in the Tantric tradition of Sri Vidya. “Rather than looking for samadhi, or liberation from the world, Tantra teaches that liberation is possible in the world.”