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The Mind and the Heart in Tantra Yoga

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“Because of the same facts that bring slavery to an ignorant, the wise man can free himself from the pain of this world. The main principle is that the fact should be accompanied by the lack of differences between the “mind” and the “heart”.”

Advayasiddha

 

The heart and the mind are two distinct parts of the human body considered in the West as the main cause of the psychic disturbances. But – and it is better that you understand this very well – though the Body Temple is made of several parts, it represents an indestructible Divine Unity as a whole.

We often say, “the heart rules the mind” when, for example, someone loses his/her control because of the strong emotions. We also say, “the head rules the heart” when the mind is cold and calculated, not at all influenced by feelings.

In both cases one of the centres dominates the other. This “misunderstanding” between the mind and the heart always produced problems among humans and it is thus completely incompatible with the ecstasy, free from selfishness that belongs to the Tantric love.

In the mystical Eastern tradition there is the idea of “giving up to lust and flesh pleasures in order to conceive the ones of the spirit”. But in real life this is a hopeless effort and mainly because of the fact that what is forbidden will finally end up going up to the surface, at the wrong time.

Tantra teaches us how to use our all body abilities as well as the mind’s and the heart’s on the way to the Final Freedom. This is how we understand this as a whole. Thus the emotions and passions can be turned into the joy of the divine ecstasy.

But such a transformation takes place because of a strong connection between the head and the heart, sense and emotion. The Tantric image of this process can be expressed in a metaphor; “the fire of emotion mixes up with the waters of the wisdom”.

The notion of mutual exchange and enrichment of emotions represents an essential face of the Tantric erotic game. It makes possible the real exchange of emotions and wonderful feelings between lovers.

The Tantric love puts together all the aspects of emotions and of intellect. It will lead the lovers to the experience of cosmic ecstasy by reaching the conscience of the Universal Self.

“When there is only lust there is no freedom. And when there is no freedom we cannot find pleasure. But together, pleasure and freedom from pleasure is in the hands of the one who is devoted to the Supreme Being.”

Kaularahasya

 

LOOSE CERTAIN HABITS THAT LIMIT YOU
Giving up certain negative habits or in other words giving up those attitudes that limit human abilities of feeling deep happiness can accelerate the evolution of the human being. When you notice that you say or think like: “But I cannot change THIS… I HAVE ALWAYS done it like that”, and then you should know that “THIS” is the first habit that you have to get rid of.

Not being at random is your victory on negative habits. It is one of the most restrictive domains there are. Any act of will has a magical power and it is a lot more efficient than an automatism or than something done with no intention.

The body has the extraordinary ability to adjust, even when it is, apparently, stiffed because of rigid life conditions. The force necessary to make a change exists in every human being, but it is better not to wait for a crisis to appear in order to get rid of a negative habit. Our own surviving as a species depends on our capacity to change and adjust.

Mental habits are a lot more difficult to change than the physical ones because they are never so obvious. Most of them exist because of how our parents or society have taught us. They limit our view on life and make us feel safe, though this it not at all true.

They make us forget about our inner Self and blur our power of comprehension and our conscience. This is dangerous for our intimate relations. Often we fight with the others and do not understand them because we do not see these habits.

In order to avoid this it is important and necessary to have a strong will. A couple should have a strong will in order to change themselves, to progress, to evolve spiritually. When the initial fear of change is overwhelmed, then you can experience new realities in life.

Certain sexual restrictions throw a shadow on a couple relations and that is why Tantra requires absolute adaptability. All Eastern teachings on sexual mystery underlines the necessity of variation and spontaneity in life.

“The obstacle represented by habits appears and is destroying. Kill this bug and you will be able to know.”

Tilopa

 

The Body’s Hidden Structure

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“Here, in this body, there are the sacred rivers. Here lie the sun and the moon and also all the holy pilgrimage places. I have never met another temple fuller with happiness as my own body.”

Saraha Doha

 

The physical body represents the temple of the spirit, a true microcosm, the copy of the entire Universe. Inside this temple there can be identified all the cosmic principles. The Tantrism teaches us that there is no temple more sacred than the “Temple of the Body”.

Inside the body there are five elements: space, air, water, fire and earth, along with their properties. This temple of the body has its own “gardens”, “rivers”, “sanctuaries” and “gates”. By definition the temple represents a place of adoration, dedicated to God.

But God, according to the Tantric learning, represents our Supreme Self that has to be known and adored in the body-temple.

Tantra also teaches us that there are nine “gates” to the temple of the body. They lie in the upper and in the lower parts of the body. “The lower gates” are the anal orifice and the one of the sexual organ.

“The upper gates” are the mouth, the nose, the eyes, the ears and the opening from the top of the head (fontanel). The fontanel is clearly visible at the moment of birth as a little hole, but it closes up gradually during the first year of living.

The esoteric Eastern tradition says that this hole under the scalp, also called as “The Brahma‘s Gate”, is the place where the Spirit goes in and out the Temple of the Body. Though the spirit in its successive subtle journeys can use other gates, the one that lies on top of the head leads always to the high spiritual level.

The Temple of the Subtle Body contains three main “rivers” and other affluent one flows from them. The Great River or the “psychical channel” starts from the inferior gate region, the perineum. It goes up the spine to the high gate situated on top of the head. This channel is also called the Great Axe, the Meru Sacred Mountain or the Great Way. It connects the human to the universe.

On each part of the Great River there are other two “rivers” that spring from the same source and go to the superior gates. They are associated with solar energies and lunar energies; on the right side of the Central Channel is the channel through which the solar energies flow and on the left side of the Central Channel is the channel through which the lunar energies flow.

They are represented as spiral lines round the Great River just like two snakes surround a tree trunk. This symbol is known as the caduceus, or the “Mercury Sceptre”. It was used as a symbol by modern medicine.

The adoring of the Body Temple consists in focusing the attention in order to guide the sexual energy along the spine towards the crown. This evolutionary process is experienced as an ecstatic thrill. It goes up from the sexual region and lights up the solar plexus.

The fire of love floods the three rivers and the solar and lunar energies get together and, in this way, enlighten the entire temple. This psychic and cosmic process also looks like an ecstatic emotion that words cannot describe.

By understanding the psychic ways, the sexual experience can become a real force. By practicing the Tantric techniques the human can experience consciously the orgasm and the transcendental bliss.
It is extremely important to see the body exactly as a temple.

This temple of the body must be kept clean, healthy and harmonious. Thus he shows respect to the God inside. Do not be afraid to go as far as you can to visualize your body as a temple. Sincere adoration represents, first of all, a spontaneous and total act of love.

Such an act of adoring, during intercourse, will make all your desires become real. One of the cardinal principles of Tantra is that love is an act of great magical and spiritual potency.

“When my lover comes back home I will turn my body into a Temple of Joy. I will give him this body as an altar of happiness and I will clean him totally with my long hair. Then my lover will dedicate this temple to divine love.”

Vaishnav Baul’s Song

Transmutation and Sublimation

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Within the lovemaking with continence we encounter intense energetic processes. These processes could be grouped in two important categories:

THE TRANSMUTATION OF SEXUAL POTENTIAL IN ENERGY

The transmutation represents the transforming of a chemical element in another chemical element, accompanied by a huge release of energy. The transmutation is produced by the radioactive disintegration or by nuclear reaction that are possible even at biologic level at the low temperatures.

The sexual biologic transmutation consists in the transforming of sexual “material” in energy that can be sublimated, leading to different refined energies according to the human being’s intentions. This transmutation is possible thanks to the keeping of the sexual “material” effervescent by a constant control during some intense erotic experience.

Because of the biologic transmutation of the sexual potential, the original sexual impulse is transformed into a new, superior energy. This transformation represents the sublimation process that is produced thanks to the aware control of the sexual functions.

Superficially we think that all in our body is material. With a great confidence, we wrongly believed that this “material” is “all”.
The experience of the biologic sexual transmutation process, within our body, drives us to some beatified moments of an overwhelming intensity. It also make us spontaneously aware of the fact that we are structured of an incredible quantity of energetic particles which are circling mysteriously and are fixed in this state by a hardly imaginable miracle.

In the human being the atomic transmutation process are continuously produced within the metabolism, the sexual process, and the erotic experiences, the mental activities and within the spiritual experiences.

At the present day it is precisely known that every atom of our human body contains a huge energy equivalent with 200.000.000 eV. And it could been said that in the sexual potential, represented by sperm in man’s case and by ovum in woman’s case, are hundreds milliards of volts “trapped in the material”.

Experiencing a beatific lovemaking, a single strong thought constantly kept in mind is sufficient to awake and to direct step by step this huge energy in the desired direction. The thought is the most powerful force of the universe.

By biologic transmutation, the huge released energy will extremely amplify the inner feelings and the banal limits of the consciousness will be gradually removed.

If the sexual continence is not realized, the vitality energy is discharged irreversibly, and is definitively loosed instead to be wisely transformed and utilized in the superior levels of the human being.

Over the time men that used to make very intense intellectual efforts have noticed that the lovemaking with ejaculation decreases their mental force and the power to achieve fast progresses in their work. On the contrary, the lovemaking practice with continence offers a huge resource of mental, physic and spiritual, necessarily for supporting very intense and long lasting efforts.

THE SUBLIMATION OF THE SEXUAL ENERGY IN MORE SUBTLE FORMS OF ENERGY

The sublimation is the inner moving of the energy resulted through biological transmutation, at the superior levels of the human being. The energy moving is realized level by level (chakra by chakra) and drives to the modifying of its vibration frequency. In this way it provokes specified effects at every level.

By sublimation, the sexual energy is directed in other levels of the human being (vital, psychic, mental or spiritual level) in order to be used in a non-sexual purpose.
We could do an analogy between the human being’s subtle alchemy, which is represented by biological transmutation and sublimation of the released energies, and the generation of the electric energy in a hydroelectric power plant. The water from an accumulation lake having a controlled falling will put in motion the turbines and so becoming a continue source of electricity.

Analogically speaking, the water from the accumulation lake represents sexual “materials” (sperm in man’s case and ovum in woman’s case). The control of the water falling represents the conscious control of sexual pleasure during lovemaking and the transformation of the water’s potential energy in kinetic energy is the transmutation phase that generates a huge energy. Then the mechanical energy is transformed in electrical energy. This is the sublimation process, through which a type of energy is transformed in energy with a higher vibration frequency.

In the same manner as the electrical energy is transported by high tension lines in order to be used according the necessities, the sexual energy is transported through energetic channels to different levels of the human being. The transporting of electrical energy generates a large range of phenomena and processes (caloric, sonorous, lightening, magnetic, etc).

In the same way the traveling of energy through energetic channels generates a lot of phenomena corresponding to the human being intentions. For, example if you have a perfect control of the sexual energy, when you focus your attention at the cardiac plexus during lovemaking with your lover, you feel a lot of amazing sensations, such as euphoric dilatation, warm in the heart area, sensation of corporal contour removing, immersion in pure love.

Biologic transmutation is started by the totally aware control of the sexual function of the human being. The transmutation reactions gradually provoke the manifestation of a huge inner bio-magnetic energy.

The further process of inner moving and of modifying of these resulted energies is named sublimation. Within the sublimation the energies are modified from the point of view of their specific frequency; in their raising from chakra to chakra it generates specified effects at every level.

We can say that an erotic-sexual impulse is sublimated as much as the resulted energy is directed to a non-sexual purpose when the targets are psychic, mental or spiritual ones.
The sublimation is a process that generates subtle power, happiness, and ineffable harmony simultaneously with the euphoric integration of the human being in the sublime ambient of the Macrocosms.

Desires and Chakras

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Tantra accepts desire as the first driving force of human soul, the same one to cause the appearance of the Universe. Consequently, Tantra does not ask its followers to give up desire. Other spiritual traditions recommend avoiding desire, even suppressing it. in fact such an attitude will only bring you to shackles, and it is therefore an obstacle in reaching higher consciousness.

The adepts of such doctrine try to overcome desire through asceticism or through burning the seed of desire in the fire of knowledge so that it wouldn’t grow. The result is paradoxical: in order to get to the state in which all desire disappear, you should have a very strong one – the one of being without any.

Tantra treats desires as natural and is based on the idea that as long as we have got a physical body, we’ll still have desires. Our sense organs are like windows for desires to get inside ourselves. It means that desires are created beyond our attachment to sensorial “food”.

All desires have a physical ground as a great number of electro-chemical impulses. The more we try to suppress them, the stronger they will become. Desires activate the hormones. Concentrating these substances in the blood can create a chemical disturbing or a disease.

Desires are directly connected to the six psychic centres known as chakras. While energy follows its natural course through different chakras it stimulates the hidden desires. These makes a person goes from a desire to another one in 24 hour.

The constant presence of the desire awakens both body and interest towards the object of desire. Most desires centre on the physical body and its comfort. People become slaves of their instincts. This is the most common and gross part of a personality and they become victims of agitation, loneliness, excitation, anxiety, dissatisfaction, selfishness and misery.

All religions and sciences that want to perfect the human behaviour try to solve these problems pleading for love towards abstract principles such as truth, compassion, benevolence, patience, self-sacrifice, altruism, pure affection and forgiveness. But we need practical methods to apply these principles. We cannot be happy only if we know that these ideals exist. We have to do something to become wise and happy.

Desires do not belong to the self, individual consciousness; they are connected to the main six chakras and can be classified in accordance to them. Chakras represent the place where the five subtle elements manifest themselves: akasha (ether or space), “air”, “fire”, “water” and “earth”. Their source is the subtle aspect called “MAHAT” (the cosmic mind).

In order to transcend the desires we have to transcend these elements. And this is possible only by waking up the latent energy (KUNDALINI), situated on the basis of the backbone.

We will now follow the relationship between the six chakras and their elements and different desires. The seventh chakra is situated beyond desire. This is the place of enlightened humans, of the self and individual consciousness.

  • MULADHARA – the area of the perineum – “earth” element – desire for security, physical comfort, biological necessities, shelter;
  • SVADHISTHANA – the sexual area – “water” element – desire for family, procreation, sexual impulses, and fantasies;
  • MANIPURA – the solar plexus – “fire” element – desire for immortality, longevity, name, fame, power, authority, and fortune;
  • ANAHATA – the cardiac plexus – “air” element – desire for good-heartedness; devotion, altruism, compassion;
  • VISHUDDHA – the carotid area – “ether element” – desire for purity, knowledge, and divine beauty;
  • AJNA – the middle of the forehead – “mahat” – desire for self-accomplishment and enlightenment;

In his book, “Secrets of Tantrism“, Serge Hutin compares different attitudes to that of a Tantric: “There are, on one side, people who eat and drink without thinking of the immediate consequences of their excess; these people are prisoners of their intemperate actions, of their unleashed cravings. You can compare them to the junkies who cannot free themselves from the terrible physiological and psychological slavery.

On the other side there are people who become experimented gourmands without falling into alcoholism and greed, who know how to appreciate refined dishes. You can’t mistake the man who is a passive slave of his passions, completely incapable of controlling them, with the one who knows how to become a gourmand of sensuality.”

Although Serge Hutin’s way of exposing things is not one of the happiest ones, we can see that “experimented gourmands” are those elevated spirits who can understand and apply the Tantric principles and manage to get to the supreme detachment right in the middle of life without having to avoid it but to integrate harmoniously in the universal harmony, in creation.

Rajneesh enlightens us with his profound vision regarding on how to transcend desire:
“Common mind destroys itself through its own desires. Yoga says, stop the desires; fight against the desires and become part of that you who is without desires. Tantra says to be aware of your desires. Don’t fight them. Move in the desire with a profound consciousness. Thus you will transcend it. You are part of it and yet you aren’t. You go through it but stay outside.

Accept yourself no matter what. Be aware of what you are. If you fight then your ego is present and will manifest strongly. And the more you fight, the stronger your ego will be. If you win, you will reach the supreme ego. Tantra says: do not fight. Then there will be no possibility for the ego to appear. If we do not understand Tantra then there will be a lot of problems because for common thinking if there is no fight then there must be a weakness. And then we will be afraid.

For example, you are angry. Tantra will never tell you: don’t be angry. It says be angry from the bottom of your heart, BUT be aware. Tantra is not against anger but it is against spiritual sleep, spiritual unconsciousness. Be conscious and be angry. This is the secret of this method. Your anger turns into compassion if you are conscious. So Tantra tells us: don’t approach that anger as your enemy. It carries around the seed of compassion.

The same energy that awakens anger, you may convert into compassion if you direct it correctly. So if you win the fight against this energy you will be a dead man. If you fight it, you won’t manage to transform it into compassion. There won’t be anger because you suppressed it. But it won’t be compassion also.

So be a friend of all energies that have been given to you. Receive them, as you should; be happy that you have anger inside, that you have sexual impulses, that you are greedy. Be grateful because they are hidden sources that can be transformed and then sublimated.

The seed is small and insignificant, even ugly at the beginning. But when it wakes up and flourishes then it becomes a great beauty. Do not throw the seed away because you will also throw the flowers that might come with it. You cannot see them yet; they haven’t manifested yet the way that you could see them. But they are there. So use the seed so that you can get to these flowers.”

Of course that it doesn’t mean that we should get angry each time we want to be compassionate. The exampleis meant to help us understand the fact that everything is transformed in the process of creation.

And also that by rejecting anything that surrounds us we do nothing else but deny a reality that has been given to us and which, regardless of our denial, manifests strongly. The essence of Tantric learning is that of sublimation and transforming these energies into elevated forms of manifestation like compassion, love, help and knowledge.

The main elements of these inner energies are attention and consciousness in each moment. The true inner feeling is the adequate answer to each stimulus, action or exterior energy.

The Energetic Map of the Brain, Part 3

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THE ZEN PRACTICE IS FAMILIAR WITH THE SECRET OF THE CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES
The scientific studies have revealed the fact that the left side of the brain usually controls logic, analysis, talk, and temporal function, while the right side has an intuitive, sensitive, spatial and holistic side, which does not use a linear type of knowledge, although the way one obtains this type of knowledge remains a mystery.

Thomas Hoover a researcher who compared the latest discoveries in neurology and the terms of the Japanese Zen, has synthesized this relationship in a highly suggestive way: “the hemisphere that knows, does not speak, and the hemisphere that speaks does not know”.

Although the two hemispheres work in an integrated manner, their functional ways have been defined according to a series of key words:

The left hemisphere (Coordinated at a subtle level by Pingala nadi) The right hemisphere (Coordinated at a subtle level by Ida nadi)
Analysis Comprehension
Partial Holistic
Explicit Implicit
Argument Experience
Intellect Intuition
Logic Emotion
Thought Feeling
Mathematics Poetry
Active Passive
Solar Lunar
Rational Mystic
Objective Subjective
Aware Subconscious
Optimism Pessimism

 

The neurobiologist and neurophysicist Marcel Kinsbourne, director of the Department of Behaviorist Neurology from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center of Waltham, Massachusetts proved that there are two types of emotional activity that are characteristic to the function of the brain.

He discovered that the two halves of the brain control quite different emotional states. Thus, the left hemisphere is responsible mainly for happiness and positive feelings, while the right hemisphere controls sadness, nostalgia and melancholia.

However, there are abnormal states of mind, in which case people with unbalanced hemisphere activity are highly merry, exalted and totally indifferent to their situation, or in the other case, they have a gloomy view of life, they are full of anger, guilt or despair.

Most people fluctuate between these two states, even in normal situations, but without reaching the extremes manifested by the subjects with their brain affected.

However, the experience itself of the above-mentioned fluctuation is enough tiresome if we are not balanced and healthy.

According to one of Kinsbourne’s theories, the association of the left hemisphere with the optimistic and merry thoughts and of the right hemisphere with the sad, pessimistic thoughts leads us to the conclusion that this dualistic action of the brain was conceived in order to control our preferences (Pingala nadi) and aversions (Ida nadi).

The left hemisphere coordinates the things that we like, and it first focuses on the object or situation that are the cause – this corresponds to the active pattern that is to Pingala nadi.

In exchange, we try to avoid or get out of the situations that we cannot control or that we dislike, situation in which we have the tendency to consider the picture in its whole (without focusing on the unpleasant thing in itself).

This function is under the control of the right hemisphere and corresponds to the receptive, introverted way of perceiving things, all characteristic to Ida nadi.

 

PART 4

The Energetic Map of the Brain, Part 4

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EINSTEIN CHOSE THE MIDDLE PATH
Most men fluctuate according to the biological rhythms between the right and the left hemispheres, between the breath on the left nostril and that on the right nostril, between the receptive and the emissive manner of acting and thinking.

The contemporary science studied these biological rhythms, although it does not completely comprehend their roles and significance.

From a yogic perspective, this rhythmical (or non-rhythmical) alternation indicates that there are disequilibria and that each of the two manner of acting rules over the other.

The state in which both sides are equal and balanced is quite unfamiliar to most people.

According to the yogic tradition, when the two aspects are balanced, the person reaches a new level of experience that unifies logic and intuition, transforms our emotions and allows our neuronal activity to increase.

All men should properly understand this need for balance, because the state that comes along with this balance is in fact a stronger and more pleasant experience.

Einstein proved that this use of both hemispheres in a balanced manner is possible, and moreover, quite imperative.

Once when he was meditating on an imaginative experience, he had a sudden intuition, that allowed him to penetrate the mysteries of the universe, fact which indicates the use of the right hemisphere, but he also use his left side in order to construct a theory of the conversion of energy, theory which brought about a revolution in science, replacing Newton’s old paradigm.

Einstein said: “truth is intuition. First comes the thought, and I try to express it in words.”

Another example of creative, non-analytical thought is Leonardo da Vinci, who invented in 1490 a helicopter, and many other things that could be used on a large scale only centuries later.

He did not limit his accomplishments to one domain, but he reached several fields. As it seems, he used his intuition in order to visualize those apparatus because most of his works appear as drawings and visual images rather that descriptions in words.

THE BREATH CONTROLS THE BRAIN
As we have seen so far, most people fluctuate from one state to another, according to the predominant activation of one hemisphere or another.

A study performed by Raymond Klein and Roseanne Armitage from the Dalhousie University, Department of Psychology proved that the performance of those tasks characteristic to the left, respectively the right hemisphere oscillate at intervals of appreciatively 90 minutes.

These intervals correspond entirely to the fluctuations of breath, confirming thus the yogic theory according to which there is a tight relationship between the breath and the cyclic activity of the brain.

In the cases of disease, these cycles may become abnormal, and irregular from the points of view of rhythm, duration, and quality. Our whole life is dependant on these rhythms, to a degree that we do not even envisage.

The yogis have diagnosed the malfunctions of the brain rhythm through the direct examination of the respiratory rhythms through the two nostrils.

They sustain the idea that all the body parts are intimately interconnected – theory confirmed also by the recent studies in this area.

During their meditations, the yogis have the flow of energy circulating through different parts of our body, and they also perceived the more subtle levels of a human being, developing special techniques that develop a greater sensitivity and power of perception.

Consequently, these techniques allow the control over the nadis, brain, and all physiological processes.

 

PART 4

Shiva, Shakti And Jiva

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“The love game of Shiva transforms the entire Universe. The love between Shiva and Shakti make the world grow and go down. Shiva can see how his lover becomes a yogi when he is practicing Hatha-yoga, and a fascinating and seductive lover, when he feels the ardent desire of making love with her.”

Shiva Purana

In our article Bhakti and Shakti – Two important aspects for tantric lovers we have talked about the relationship between faith, devotion and the Creative Energy. We have introduced the concept of “androgyn”, meaning the masculine and the feminine co-exist together in each of us.

But every discussion about Shakti, the feminine principle in Tantrism, leads us to its counter part, Shiva, the masculine principle in Creation. We will talk about Shiva, from a transcendent perspective. But for now we’ll analyse briefly the relationship between Shiva and Shakti, so that the reader will be able to easily recognize the masculine principle within him or herself.

The Hindu terminology might seem extremely hard to understand at first, but with patience it will prove to be very useful.

Shiva, signifying the Universal masculine principle, may be found as well inside a man as inside a woman. The ancient texts named him “The Great God” or “The Divine Immortal Principle”, Shiva’s symbol is the phallus.

The lingam represents the Great Spirit, the Universal Spirits in effervescence. The stimulus is the Shakti-The Creative Energy that rotates round the cosmic errection of Shiva as an ocean of infinite variety, a true sea of sensations.

Egyptians, Greeks and Romans in Antiquity, as well as other people from the era b.Ch. worshiped the phallus as the symbol of the masculine principle. Shiva represents the yogic archetype, the Absolute Master of any being on the path of the spiritual evolution.

The Shiva Principle is directly linked to the Eternal Spirit. In the antique mythology, Shiva was presented as “the one who Defeats Death”

The whole universe is created from the union of the two immutable principles that represent the masculine and the feminine principles.

In Eastern iconography, Shiva is represented either as a lingam (a phallus), or as a lingam with a certain face, or as a column, or as a yogi sitting or standing with his lingam in erection, or as an anthropomorphic representation with many arms.

The Tantric works say that there is a lingam in each yoni. Anatomically speaking, this thing makes refference to the clitoris. When it is excited it is erect and reminds us of the inherent bisexuality in every woman.

The understanding of Shiva’s transcendence allows one to perceive the subtle worlds. During the Tantric erotic game try to identify with Shiva’s extraordinary mental energy. This will give you the transcending experience, which is a lot further than the limited world we live in.

Shiva is experimented as an understanding of the space depths, as a penetration in the infinite Universe, beyond any thing or any event, known or unknown. A Hindu Tantric text, Shiva Samhita, says that “those who can experiment Shiva’s principles are the heroes, enterprising, free from the sorrow and blind emotions, capable, perseverant, talented, happy and with a determined and disciplined mind.”

Transcendence can’t be known or perceived from a worldly point of view because, by definition, it goes beyond any limits of the known Universe.

Now, let me introduce you another important concept: Jiva. It means the individual soul. It is compared to a solitary ray of the great sun Brahma, the Creator.

Shiva Samhita presents briefly the nature and the function of Jiva.
It says: “Jiva lives in the man’s body and in the woman’s body as well. It is covered in all kinds of desires. There is a strong and tight relationship between him and the body throughout karma that was accumulated in the past lives. Every being enjoys and suffers according to his/her own past actions. The Jiva who’s done many good and virtuous deeds will enjoy a happy life and wonderful conditions in this world. But the Jiva, who, on the contrary, has done many bad deeds, will never find his peace. No matter what is the nature of his desire, positive or negative, it will always cling to the Jiva and follow him all the time, during his countless reincarnations.”

The concepts of Shiva and Jiva, meaning the supreme masculine principle and the individual soul, are very important in understanding the Universe, especially while on the path of Tantric love. If you can identify yourself with Shiva-The Transcendent, you will have a profound inner vision over the wonderful play between man and woman.

And, if you are able to transfigure your lover as the embodiment of the transcendent, beyond all known limits of this world, then you will be able to fully enjoy the experience of transcendence.

If you worship your lover with love and devotion, the Shakti’s creative energy will awaken the Shiva inside you. Thus, having Shakti as counterpart, Shiva’s force (or in other words the Pure Conscience) will rise strongly inside you.

By an intimate union between Shiva and Shakti, in a complete ecstatic pleasure, Jiva or the individual soul gets free from the slavery of his past existence. Then the couple will be able to reach soon the final freedom.

“There is a bridge between Time and Eternity; this bridge is Jiva, the individual soul itself.”

Chandagya Upanishad

 

The Energetic Map of the Brain, Part 2

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YOGA NORMALIZES THE SUBTLE CIRCUITS OF THE HUMAN BODY
Recent and revealing researches in the field of neuroscience have proved that the brain functions according to the “dual” system of the nadis, as the yogi described it thousands of years ago.

In a radical attempt to treat some severe forms of epilepsy, Roger Sperry and his assistants have performed brain surgeries on the median line that connects the two brain hemispheres, where the so-called corpus callosum is found.

To their great surprise, not only the epileptic crises have stopped, but they also made some great discoveries that modify radically the neuropsychological understanding of the way the brain functions, and thus they brought about a revolution in the medical and scientific view of man.

It is a fact of common knowledge that the right part of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the left part of the brain controls the right side of the body.

Although in an incipient stage, Sperry’s researches have proved that each part of the brain controls and coordinates a different behaviorist pattern, opposed but yet complementary to each other.This is a highly important discovery and also confirms the yogic views.

Although the yogis make use of a different conceptual apparatus and different experimental methods, the scientist reached the same conclusions as the yogis.

According to these, a person is characterized by two main ways of manifesting him/herself. The energies that pass through Ida and Pingala coordinate the brain circuits, which have been associated with the knowledge or consciousness, and respectively with the energy of action (or physical force).

The subtle influences of these two types of energy are to be found on all three main levels of the nervous system.

1. The sensorial motor nervous system: the whole electrical activity of the body is directed towards one or the other of the two possible directions to the brain: afferent (associated to Ida nadi), and efferent (associated to Pingala nadi).

These subtle nadis and the corresponding nerves on a physical level control the human perception of the world and respectively the capacity to act in the outer world.

2. The autonomous nervous system is divided in the sympathetic nervous system, oriented towards the exterior, operating in conditions of stress, that consume and uses our energy and is consequently a manifestation of yang energy, and the parasympathetic nervous system, oriented towards the inner activities, operating in conditions of rest, preserving and accumulating the energy and is consequently a manifestation of yin energy.

These two systems control and regulate all automatic processes of the body: heartbeat, blood pressure, breath, digestion, kidney and liver activity, etc.

3. The central nervous system involves the brain and the spine and controls the two above-mentioned systems. The brain activities are complex, because it is as a giant computer, that stores and integrates information, making decisions in a perfectly synchronized.

However, its synergic functioning means more than the simple functioning of its parts. The brain circuits have more potential energy than a human being might use during an entire lifetime.

The yogic techniques have the role of purifying these energetic circuits associated to some precise functions.

In accord with the yogic tradition, the science has discovered that the nadis of the central nervous system and of the brain control the subtle circuits of the nadis and charkas.

If through the practice of pranayama we succeed in purifying and reconnecting these subtle circuits, our entire being will be deeply transformed. The efficiency of the yogic techniques is based on the fact that there is this subtle system of nadis.

The body-mind complex “functions” due to three types of energy: the receptive, yin energy, corresponding to Ida nadi, the yang, active type of energy, corresponding to Pingala nadi, and the “neutral” energy that flows through Sushumna nadi.

This latter observation may cast more light on the importance of the balance between the two types of energy.

 

PART 4

Shiva, The Masculine Principle In Tantra

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In the Hindu pantheon, Shiva is one of gods in the Divine trinity composed of Brahma, Vishnu and Himself, each representing one of the three aspects of the Divine, that is The Creator, The Sustainer and respectively The Destroyer of the Universe. Shiva is said to live in Svarloka, the realm of gods and demi-gods ruled by Indra, the greatest among them.

Shiva, as distinguished from Parama-Shiva, corresponds to that aspect of the ultimate Reality which is pure consciousness, pure
subject, pure I, without even the slightest notion of “I am” or “I am this” or “I am here”.

In his Tantra-Loka, Abhinava Gupta refers to Shiva as “the Mother and the Father of the Universe”. Shiva is the seed, or origin of the multidimensional universe, giving rise to all other ontological categories. Yet, there is no duality in Shiva because he is still completely immersed in blissful union with Shakti.

However, in order to understand properly this fundamental concept of Tantrism, which is the masculine principle – Shiva, we should look back towards the roots of Tantra.

 

Tantrism enjoys suddenly an immense popularity among philosophers and teologicians as well as among “practitioners” (yoghis, ascets, etc.), its prestige reaching the folk strata. All great Hindu religions have thus assimilated Tantra in one form or another.This process had actually begun thousands of years beforehand, during the Arian civilization and during the blending of the different co-existing traditions (Dravidian, etc).

The legend says that during these inflaming times a great man was born, named Sadashiva. His name means “the one who dedicated his life to the well-being of his fellows”. Sadashiva, known as Shiva, was an outstanding spiritual teacher or Guru. He was the one who first offered humanity a systematic presentation of a sheer spiritual thought. As the legend goes, he is the one to set the basis of spiritual dance and music in India and is therefore known also as NATARAJA, The God of Cosmic Dance.

Moreover, the real founder of Hindu traditional medicine and also the provider of a system and knowledge in this field (bearing the name Vadyak Shastra) is nonetheless Shiva.

Shiva played an extremely important role in the social area as well. He is the creator of the system of marriage, in which both partners accept equal responsibilities, disregarding caste or community. Shiva himself came from a mixed family and through his marriage to an Arian princess helped a lot in unifying the warring factions in India at that time. The Hindu sage Sri Shankar, expert in studies and research on Tantrism, considers Shiva as a real father of human civilization.

However, Shiva’s most important contribution to the development of a truly spiritual civilization represents the concept of DHARMA. DHARMA is a Sanskrit word translated literally as “innate characteristic”. Which may be the innate characteristic of a human being? Shiva explained that human beings seek and yearn for happiness placed beyond that originated in the satisfaction of the senses. The indisputable aim of all human beings, wheather aware of this or not, is to obtain absolute peace and freedom, infinite knowledge and spiritual beatitude.

Shiva’s ideas were transmitted orally at first, then in written form. Parvati, his wife used to ask him questions on
topisc raised by the spiritual practice he taught.

The tantra-s (texts, writings which present the tantric philosophy and practice) are in fact the dialogues between Shiva and his wife Parvati, dialogues in which Parvati asks
questions on spiritual matters and Shiva gives divine answers.

The tantra-s are divided into two great categories:

1. The theoretic principles of the tantric system. Tantric philosophy and conceptions on different matters are to be found in the writings named NIGAMA.

2. The practices through which the proposed aims may be attained; the different methods, techniques and procedures are to be found in the texts named AGAMA.

Many of these antique manuscripts were lost for good, others are damaged by time, and others still are unreadable by the mundane because of their coded text meant to hide the tantric secrets from the eyes of the unknowledgeable. This is also one reason for which the conceptions and fundaments of Tantra have not been completely decoded up to our days.

Part of Shiva’s original teachings were lost, other parts were spread on large areas, being assimilated in different ways and under different forms in the traditions and local schools.

Each Hindu believer followed his own path, according to their inner aspirations, choosing one spiritual current which implied the adoration of one of these three gods.

Thus, Tantrism and Yoga are specially oriented towards the adoration of Shiva and are therefore called Shivaits, and this spiritual current is named Shaiva. Others have turned towards the cult of Vishnu, named Vaishnava.

We should nonetheless carefully distinguish between different spiritual currents and opposing spiritual currents, which is not the case of Shaivism and Vaishnavism. Some western studies have committed the error of sustaining the idea that there were antithesis, competitions and even fighting between the two spiritual currents. The Western searcher should properly understand that for the Hindu, Shiva and Vishnu represent two complementary aspects of Brahma, The Creator. The first of these two gods, Shiva represents the destructive, transforming and reiterating principle of the infinite Creation, while the latter – the animating, conservative principle, which maintains the creation in its whole.

Unfortunately, nowadays Tantra appears to most people as a tenebrous, unbreakable and controversial mystery owing to a multitude of misunderstandings and misconceptions that occured in the minds of some of the “reputed” Western researchers of Tantra.

The Tantrics (that is the practitioners of Tantra) and the Yoghis (the practitioners of Yoga) belong to the Shaivist current. The aspect of the Ultimate Reality in the form of the Transformer, the renewer of an eternally vivacious, effervescent Creation suited best to their spiritual quest and ardor.

Shaivism presents Shiva as endowed with all the attributes of the Supreme Divinity, and therefore He is the Supreme Creator. His symbolic representation while performing the magic dance of creation is an iconographic theme quite rich in symbolism and offers us an idea about the rhythm of life of the whole creation, and as well of its destruction. we will discuss these aspects in detail further on.

The name Shiva signifies “the good and the kind”. Paradoxically, He is the designated God of destruction, but this must not be understood as the destroyer of human being, but the destroyer of ignorance and corruption in the human nature. Thus, He is an infinitely benevolent force as He rapidly casts away the restraining ignorance and allows
human beings to contemplate His magnificence.


 

Shakti – A Fundamental Tantric Concept

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In the Tantric cosmogony, the term Shakti defines an unbelievable complex aspect of the universe, which bears numerous nuances.

Some of these are: cosmic creative force, mother who gave birth to everything, cosmic energy, seductive woman, devoted sister, terrible power who destroys all limitations, Goddess who grants divine gifts, feminine force residing especially in beautiful, vital and spiritual women, fundamental energy Kundalini Shakti, etc.

The Tantrics assert that in order to define Shakti one has to know Her.

The problem arises once one gets to truly know what Shakti is because then any attempt of classifying it, any concept disappear as these cannot comprise the sublime of Shakti, regardless of its potential degree of philosophical value.

According to the tantric view of Shakti, She has innumerable ways of manifesting herself.

She is the famous energy Kundalini or the snake coiled at the base of the spine, immense energy that yogis awaken and contemplate with fascination and fear equally, totally charmed by it. Nevertheless, the snake is merely a symbol of the spiritual path, not the path itself.

The divine energy, Shakti, as tantric philosophy has it, does not allow to be confined in any form, formula or ritual. Subtle as the earth, imperceptible as the water, bright as the fire, free as the air, infinite as the space she traverses all elements belonging to this world, without ascertaining the identity of any.

The renowned master Vimalananda said once that speaking of enlightenment without knowing Shakti is simply a joke.

There is a Hindu myth about how Shakti first appeared. the importance of this myth does not necessarily lie in its imagery, but in its symbolism.

The legend says that a monstruous demon, Mahisa, was threatening the foundation of the universe itself, and the existence of all gods. Brahma and the whole pantheon called Shiva and Vishnu for help. enraged, the gods emitted their energies as a fire coming out from their mouth.

These different divine flames unified into a one as a burning cloud, and finally took the shape of a goddess with eighteen arms. this goddess, Shakti was the one who succeeded in defying the demon and at the same time saving the universe.

The important thing to note here is that the gods seem to have somehow restored their energies to the Primordial Force, the Source from which everything emerged in the very beginning.

Shakti represents also the force of transformation and regeneration, an extraordinary ascendant force that may lead to ecstasy, in tantric opinion.

Moreover, according to the same sources, Shakti represents the beatific force of orgasm, the thrill of sexual pleasures amplified through the profound fusion between the two lovers. She is the divine game of love itself. She is also called “Lalita” or “Lila”, both meaning “the one who plays.”

Tantra says: “everything perceivable through the eyes is definable in terms of frames of mind, but not Her who is the Mother”, and “she is ineffable and beyond perception/conception; having a form, she is nonetheless formless.”

The tantrics have distinguished two aspects in which she becomes manifested: static and dynamic. Shakti is Maya, (illusion) who appears as the phenomenal world and hides the Absolute Consciousness from the ignorant. As subtle and undifferentiated energy of the universe, she is Parashakti. These forms are not separated, but co-exist in a fundamental manner.

In her supreme form, Shakti is identified with Mahadevi or Mahamaya, the Great Goddess, the power who creates and destroys, often represented as the mysterious uterus from which everything emerged and in which everything dissolves.

In the tantric cosmology, the whole universe (the macrocosm) is considered to have emerged and to be permanently sustained by two forces, opposed in term of polarity: Shiva (masculine) and Shakti (feminine).

The sacred books, the Tantras, speak of the goddess Dakini, totally and eternally free, who is the Supreme Absolute itself:

“when there exists nothing, Sun, Moon, planets, nothing else but the void, then only my Divine Formless Mother exists.”

For the well-known master SRI AUROBINDO the Cosmic Mother “mediates always between the human personality and the Divine Nature”, facilitating the access to the later.

She is the colossal force, who supports the biologic, psychic, affective and mental processes of the human being. She does not manifest itself only through the laws of nature, but also through the processes of life, through attitudes, frames of mind, etc.

Everything that is movement, consequently life (microcosmic or macrocosmic) is in reality the action of Shakti, the Cosmic Mother, who embraces everything and is in the same time beyond…