Tantra
Tantra: A Sanskrit word of two parts; Tan-expansion and Tra - liberation.
Liberation through expansion, breaking through personal barriers and courageously going forward toward the Divine Bliss both as an individual and as a society. Ultimately, Tantra is the path of the spiritual warrior that encourages us to fight unceasingly against limited or prejudiced thinking, against inner and outer enemies of genuineness, truth and shallowness and to seek a union of the sensual and the spiritual. In the mysticism of Islam there is no room for idolatry, materiel or human, only to push the limits of sensual love and intoxication to encounter the Divine. Tantra inspires and teaches us to seek the Divine Bliss as opposed to being caught in the cage of merely looking for pleasure and avoiding pain. Tantra encourages savoring life to its fullest, with its pleasure and pain, beauty and ugliness, living and dying. Tantra teaches us how to go beyond, how to reach the union of these opposites and how to transcend them. At its very core, Tantra is founded on the philosophical notion that one Living Divinity (Brahama) separates Itself into Him (Shiva) and Her (Shakti), into the Creator and the Creatrix, into Cognitive and Operative Principles of the Universe. Everything: God, Truth, Divine Love is viewed as having two aspects: male and female, now and then, here and there, self and other-than-self. The continuous relationship between these opposites generates appearances of energy and matter. Our continuous ego-driven interference with our life's mission sustains the separation of these opposites. Thus, we are caught in the Play of energy and mass, by holding onto ever unresolved, infinitely complicated relationships between the opposites, created by the Divine Order Itself for our edification and imprisonment in the world of perceived self and other-than-self. Tantra, like reality is a field of energy that congeals, temporarily into a new form of ‘Oneness’.
"If you remain aware you will come to know that sex is not just sex. Sex is the outermost layer, deep inside is the love, and even deeper is prayer, and deepest is God himself. Sex can become a cosmic experience. Then it is Tantra".Osho
Khajuraho
The concept of Khajuraho is now a legend, but 1000 years ago it was a living philosophy acted out in ancient temples....... Deep in the tiger and elephant jungles of central India, a clan of Chandala Rajputs lived a life of absolute celebration and non denial. They built temples of stone and adorned them with sensual carvings of erotica and buddhas, dancers and musicians. Buddhist and Tantra copulated in an entwining of sexuality and spirituality with an utter abandonment of modesty or repression. A quest for consciousness, was practiced through meditation, yoga, sex and dance, in a state of joy.
The Khajuraho room of Bambuddha Grove® is a monument to the concept of Tantra-Buddhism.
Zen
“Unlike other religions, which have fallen prey to hero-worship and dogmatism, Zen insists on the unique capacity of every human being to reach enlightenment or freedom from the illusions of ego created by the mind. And it insists that this capacity can only be realised through meditation. Not by following certain rituals, adhering to a set of rules but only by a non-judgmental attentiveness to one's own thoughts, actions and feelings.
When we practice this alertness, this meditative approach to life, it soon brings the awareness that we each contain an unchanging, undisturbed and eternal centre of watchfulness; a centre that has the capacity to see life as a great adventure, a play, a mystery school and, finally, a blissful journey with no purpose other than to delight in every step of the way. It is the capacity not to worship Buddhas but to become a Buddha, not to follow others but to develop the awareness within that brings a quality of light and love to all that we do”
Osho
Education: “The educator should remember that his aim is not to put into the mind knowledge that was not there before, but to turn the minds eye to the light so that it can see for itself” (Truth) “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
T.S. Elliot
Yab Yum
Yabyum is a Tibetan word of two parts; 'Yab'-male or father, and 'Yum'-female or mother. It is the name given to bronze castings, sculptures and Tanghka paintings representing the sexual and spiritual discipline of Tantra Yoga from Vajrayana Buddhism. A Buddha or Bodhisatva, sits meditating in the Lotus position, while his consort sits astride him in sexual union. He controls and she prolongs the consummation, directing the massive energy up the Kundalini or 'snake' (spinal cord), from the lowest Chackra, center of sexual awakening, to the highest Chackra. This results in the unfolding of the Lotus-Sahasrar at the crown of the head; enabling Blissful, Consciousness and ‘Oneness’.
Shivalingam
The Lingam is a symbol of that which is invisible yet omnipresent, the Ultimate Reality that is present in us all and in all objects of creation. The anthropomorphic Shivalingam denotes the primeval energy of the Creator: at the end of all creation, during the great Deluge, all of the different aspects of God find a resting place in the Lingam, which also, represents the infinite Cosmic Column of fire. During Hindu ceremonies the Lingam, or male phallus, is anointed by female disciples with milk, honey, incense and flowers and is mounted on a circular or quadrangular receptacle called an Avudaiyar, or Yoni, which represents the female vagina. The liquid seed-juices flow down the shaft of the Lingam and into the Yoni from where they drain off into the Earth, fertilizing and generating life.
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