The Tantric Lifestyle

[Guest guest]

M (or M) asks, "What is the tantric lifestyle?"

 

 

For me, tantra yoga, and particularly the Saivite nondual tantra of

Kashmir, asserts that all of consciousness is Real. The purpose of

the tantric life is to recognize (experience) this Reality.

 

Tantra is really very simple. All manifest reality is the Voice of

the Mother. All reality is the Mother's Song. Tantrikas strive to

recognize in all of manifest reality, the single Voice that is the

Mother's eternal song. When the yogi begins to hear and feel and,

indeed, see this Voice, then She sees that everything that appears as

manifest is really the One Vibration. The tantrika begins to hear

and see and feel this Vibration as her own body. She begins to

experience this Vibration as the world, as the universe, that is her

own body. When she walks about the world of her own body, all sounds

and sights and smells is the marvelous experience of Her own Voice,

Her own reality. The tantric lifestyle means engaging in pursuits

that assist one in recognizing that all manifest reality is actually,

One Reality, all sights and sounds, are really One Vibration.

 

But this is not all. Manifest reality is the Song of Shakti, of the

Mother. There is also the Light of Siva, or Pure Awareness. Some

believe that manifest reality and Pure Awareness are separate. But

the tantrika has a different experience. The tantrika who recognizes

that She is all of manifest reality also realizes that She is the

Pure Awareness of manifest reality. As the tantrika follows the

Voice of the Mother, she realizes that it is easy to separate the

experience of the Mother's Voice with the Pure Awareness of the

Mother's Voice. If one pursues only the Pure Awareness of the

Mother's Voice, then one may begin to view the Mother's Voice as

unreal, as an illusion. By contrast, if one only allows oneself to

recognize the One Vibration that is all manifest reality, then one

may believe that Shakti alone is Real. The tantrika seeks

recognition of the nondual Self: the experience of all consciousness

as himSelf. I am cannot be fully I am if part of I am is not real.

 

Therefore, the tantrika seeks the ultimate Union, the absolute unity

of time and timeless, manifest and unmanifest. This experience

occurs in many different ways. The grace of an enlightened master

can cause Recognition to occur in a single instant. Another way is

through meditation. But not just any kind of meditation.

 

One will have reached a place in one's meditative life where all

thoughts have naturally slowed and dissipated. When the tantrika

closes his eyes to meditate--(or leaves them open, it doesn't matter)

he will immediately experience as the 'wallpaper' of his

consciousness, silence, stillness. This yogi will have also reached

a place where her senses are always, active always attuned to the

Awareness of Her Mother, her manifest Self. The yogi then

contemplates the 'sensation' of absolute awareness. She will then

arrive at a place where time ceases. He will be fully aware, fully

conscious. Then she is prepared for the Union of the sun and the

moon, Shiva and Shakti. A moment will arrive, through Grace, when

She recognizes that all Sensation, the Voice of Shakti, and Pure

Awareness, the Light of Siva, are not two, but One. She will

experience all Sensation all at Once. Forever thereafter, Her

experience of Being Alive will be utterly and completely Real. She

will experience at once, the Pure Vibration that is creative

manfestation and the Pure Awareness that is also creative

manifestation.

 

Shiva and Shakti are thus not two, but One Living experience of one's

own Self as Real.

The awakened tantrika is then free to exclaim, "I am Real!"

 

The Saint Lalla, of Kashmir writes;

 

 

I, Lalla, entered the jasmine garden,

where Shiva and Shakti were making love.

 

I dissolved into them,

and what is this

to me, now?

 

I seem to be here,

but really I'm walking

in the jasmine garden.

 

And from John Hughes, disciple of the ascended Swami Lakshmanjoo

Maharaj of Kashmir, in a letter to this writer,

> I love this verse,

>

> Let Shiva, who has taken the form of my individual being, offer salutation

> to his Universal Being which is Shiva, through medium, which is also Shiva,

> for the removal of obstacles which are, indeed, one with Shiva.

 

 

This then is the aim of the tantric lifestyle.

 

MadhyaNandi

[Guest guest]

>

>madhya nandi <madhya

>

>M (or M) asks, "What is the tantric lifestyle?"

>

>

>For me, tantra yoga, and particularly the Saivite nondual tantra of

>Kashmir, asserts that all of consciousness is Real. The purpose of

>the tantric life is to recognize (experience) this Reality.

>

>Tantra is really very simple. All manifest reality is the Voice of

>the Mother. All reality is the Mother's Song. Tantrikas strive to

>recognize in all of manifest reality, the single Voice that is the

>Mother's eternal song.

 

Dear Madhya,

 

All of this post has moved me so very deeply, I hardly know where to

begin. Would you please help me? I have heard so much on other lists of

Maya...and the conclusion is usually some version of how the

manifestations of this world are unreal. Well, I just confess I must be

hopelessly in love with impermanence, anyway. (smile) I do understand

that the changing does not last, but I have never quite gotten how a

truly nondual perspective would or could exclude anything. I love your

description of how this union of Shiva and Shakti creates and IS

reality. So how do you deal with the Maya issues and questions?

 

Thank you for this and your many other helpful posts,

 

Glo