Tantrism and Shivaïsm [Esotericism]

 

Shiva Seated

 

Tantrism attempts to link the individual with the cosmic forces, including those that are esoteric. Contrarily to the Vedanta, Tantrism is a-moral and non-immoral, and of essentially esoteric. It rests itself on the inner knowledge of natural forces. In that respect, it is to be compared to shamanism and ancient practices including Taoism that see the interconnectedness of all things.

The tantric practitioner needs to remove first the educational and societal limitations that hinder the mind. The Tantrika seeks the energies where they can be found, and seeks to increase his own powers by understanding and respecting them and by entering in contact with their correspondences within him.

Reality is perceived as the interplay of energies or the act of drawing from these energies which in turn devours us. The Tantrika gains awareness of this cosmic principle, like a warrior going to fight, and decides to offer to the Awareness his own becoming. He sees the illusions of the cognitive energies that lead to start fights that are not his or her. In exchange, he uses them as food to put them in the fire of his own purification and overcome in this way the doubt and fear that hold him prisoner, and prevent and limit his view on Reality.

In this way, the practitioner gradually exhaust the power of attraction of objects of relative knowledge, and in this way increases his personal strength so that he can dedicate himself to the true purpose, which is the re-gain of the totality of his being.

The practitioner should never loose sight of the true purpose, the inner growth during the re-gain of spiritual attributes ("powers"). Indeed, if the phenomenal ego allows the attribute to consciousness, it is also by its very nature limiting and conditioning. The practitioner seeks to cross the guardians of what needs to be guarded, which is to say consciousness itself in its pure state.

The Tantrika therefore seeks the mastery of the energies. This power that he may gain is however the power of detachment of what linked him to a particular point of view. In this way emerges what remains, the core consciousness. For this, the Tantrika practices yoga, asana, pranayama, mudra, rituals, and all techniques aiming at freeing him. The power of the tantrika is that of using the modalities of the personality to accept the gift of consciousness.

The Tantrika knows the following paradox:

In order to exist, life requires the limitations of time and space. The limitation in space is what presides over individuation and differentiation. The limitation in time is what presides over death and joy. This represents the cosmic sacrifice without which consciousness could not be affected and could not vibrate to the love of the Self.

In light of the masters of Tantra Yoga:

What has no reality include shape, appearance, and dynamics because they are transitory and ephemeral, which means ungraspable, transforming, erasable, inconstant and exclusively going to be lost and degraded.

What has no reality include shapeless, essence and static because they are empty, impalpable, without depth, without measure, inexpressible, invisible, without substance and exclusively pertaining to the unconsciousness.

What has reality is the union of these two same principles considered then as conscience in the act (Shiva Shakti), the shape expressing what is shapeless, statics freeing itself from dynamics, and one made for the other.