Tantra Yoga: Returning to origins

By Dinu Roman

Returning to origins

TANTRA YOGA considers that the human being has an extremely complex body and mind. The usual consciousness of wakefulness is considered to be only a very small fraction of our native intelligence, fruit of a very long period of evolution and development of the human being. The practitioner tries to follow the same road of evolution but in an opposite direction. He must go through all stages in inverted order and leave them behind, until he finds the starting point or the unique origin. This is logical if we realize that TANTRA considers the human being to be a summary of the Universe and therefore all the cosmic elements have their correspondent in the visible and invisible man.

The Diamond Body

Consequently, the TANTRIC way does not mean to run away in an alienating foreign spiritual universe, for the TANTRIC practitioner wants to take with him in his evolution all the structures of his body creating in this way the famous "diamond body," (VAJRAYANA) which is beyond the limitations of time. The transformations that take place then consciously free all the potential of the human being. This has a positive repercussion on the body, considered as a unitary whole composed of visible (i.e. physical) and invisible (i.e. subtle) structures. Yearning tirelessly to grasp the enigmatic silence and the fascinating mystery of the Cosmos, the TANTRIC practitioner becomes an integral part of this mystery in the bosom of which he absorbs and identifies himself. For this, the external practice and the internal mutation are both indispensable because they make it possible to understand within themselves (through identification or SAMYAMA) the phenomena, leading to an authentic and sometimes ineffable understanding of the cosmic forces that surround us. Modern scientists are still making weak attempts to decode them, but for the TANTRIC practitioner these subtle forces are everyday realities.

Everything is Light

For example, using the techniques of MANTRA (subtle attuning sounds) meditation, the TANTRIC masters discovered long ago that there is an objective rapport between sound and light. For them, light is just a sound of a certain frequency. The visible appearance of every object is due to a concentration and simultaneous reflection of the light. This multiple reflection lowers the frequency of the energy which then crystallizes in physical forms. Light frequencies are seen as different colors. Sound and color are related in the same way as are life and form. Every color corresponds to a certain sound and vice-versa; every sound has its subtle energetic color-form. A MANTRA is a subtle mental sound that facilitates the attuning to the mysterious frequencies of the cosmic forces. When a MANTRA is uttered correctly (UCCARA), its color-form starts to manifest also in a degree that depends on the nature and intensity of the uttering.

SHIVA and SHAKTI

In the TANTRIC philosophy, every letter of the Sanskrit alphabet is a BIJA MANTRA (seed sound) which is associated with a certain part of the human body or, to be more specific, to a certain petal of the power centers (CHAKRAS). This shows that the different parts of the human body are the manifestations of the different dynamic aspects of an Essential Energy known in TANTRA as KUNDALINI SHAKTI, an enigmatic and complex subtle power which lies in a latent form at the base of the spine. TANTRA YOGA considers that the Ultimate Truth is easily attained through the beatific union of PURUSHA (the Spirit) and PRAKRITI (the Nature); or, in TANTRIC terminology, through the union of SHIVA and SHAKTI. SHIVA represents the pure passive Consciousness, the static aspect of the Ultimate Reality. SHAKTI is the creative power of the Universe, the dynamic feminine element, the matrix of endless possibilities through which the Infinite and Unique Consciousness can manifest.

Relationships release Power

Any profound fusion of the complementary opposites, or reintegration of polarities into the origins of the whole, automatically brings a breakthrough into higher levels and leads to a gradual re-discovery of primordial spontaneity and unity (SVATANTRYA). This transcendency of opposites is a transcendency of the Cosmos because this movement abolishes the duality. The frantic and complete embrace of SHIVA and SHAKTI merges them forever in a Unique Principle. And in the bosom of the Ultimate Reality reached in this way, there is no more SHIVA or SHAKTI, there is only UNITY, there is only ONE. All physical, biophysical and psycho-mental aspects of the Cosmos return to this Unity which emanates and reabsorbs them continuously.

Courtesy to NATHA (Nordic centre of Spiritual Development) in Danmark

For more articles by Dinu Roman, please visit http://www.natha.dk