What is the Tantra? Or more specifically, the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, the scripture affectionately and broadly just called Tantra in all Eastern Western communions of language. Shiva, in his Bhairav form, stands for the Knower, and Bhairavi, or the Devi, stands for the Known.
In so, the Known asks the Knower how to be perceived. The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is a scripture where the goddess is in deep conversation with the God. Here the goddess denotes the Devi of outer creation and the God as the absolute creation, Shiva or the inner self.
These questions and answers of the Tantra form that bridge. The Devi begins by asking a series of questions. One by one, Shiva answers that they are all merely attributes, not his real self.
Then the Devi, who herself is all that is already known, asks her cosmic partner Shiva, the knower, to free her from her doubts and express his true nature. And here, the answers by Shiva each constitute techniques to bridge the outer world and go beyond. But consciousness cannot be known, only experienced. It is stated that between the questions and answers, there is a gap.
There are 112 techniques in the Tantra. or 112 sutras or methods that Shiva addresses as answers to the Devi. These various methods are broadly categorized in three types of qualities, the Shambhavupai, the Shakthopai and the Anuvupai. The first is considered the ideal and the most difficult.
The second is Guru or instruction enabled and so is medium in achievement and practice. The third, considered the most inferior, in that it can be easily achievable through repetition and effort. It is said that to succeed in a Shambhava Upay, the aspirant must possess firm strength of awareness to maintain consciousness without any support. The old masters cite that yogi need only maintain a thoughtless state.
But to do so, the techniques are simply, the means are in what is meant. The second type or class of techniques are the Shaktopai and utilize the support of the Guru's grace or the mind, breath, mantras or instruction. Here the inner senses are attuned to consciousness where prana is eked out and understood. In that sense, these techniques are easily definable enabling their familiarity to an aspirant's practice. The Shaktopai Type of techniques form a journey where their destination is higher consciousness, the kind that is naturally associated with Shambhavapaya's union.
The Anavapaya series of techniques form the foundational techniques. These can be understood through mantras, yoga, prana and thought constructs. Simply put, the middle path or Madhyamdhatva allows for easy centering.
Even in simple actions such as raising our hand all the way up and taking it down slowly, the gap in between consciousness within these two steps just is between the dreaming and state of deep sleep. Just as in between two breaths, the junction exists like it does between two letters of a mantra. Trikashaiva philosophy teaches that Shiva manifested this external world to create the possibility of recognizing his own.
true nature in Shaivism. Though the means may be many, the goal is only one mystical absorption in the Shambho state where the yogi becomes instantly established in supreme consciousness where one has nowhere else to go except in this absorption of reality in God consciousness in one's own inner nature. This is what is indicated in the statement the means exists in the state of the ment according to a popular school of thought for the tantra osho if you feel or remain the same and do not feel any strangeness then nothing is happening however this is the first indication of whether a type of technique fits you. If it does, then immediately you are transported, transcended, transformed into a different person.
Suddenly this happens, and you look at the world in a different way. The eyes are the same, but the looker behind them is different. Another ancient mystic master states that the energy of illumination is like the activity of thinking without any object of thought.
It is further stated, that to achieve the desired states of consciousness, one must develop a chain-like awareness and then become aware of these kinds of gaps and the centers and junctions of heightened awareness. Until one achieves such a state, all the basic techniques of the Anurabhai are recommended. Contemplating the gap is one of them, like the state of consciousness in the gap between the question and the answer. According to Osho's translation of the Tantra, the Devi asks, O Shiva, what is your reality? What is this wonderful universe?
What constitutes seed? Who centers the universal wheel? What is this life beyond form pervading forms? How may we enter it fully, above space and time, names and descriptions? Let my doubts be cleared.
Translated for details This reads as, from a good point of view, what is essential nature of Bhairav. Does it consist of the energies of the multitude of letters? The letters are the Varnamala, starting from A to Ksh, also known as the Shabdabrahma.
Does it consist of nine different forms? Shiva, the Absolute. Sadashiva, the Eternal.
Ishvara. The Deity, Vidya or Pure Knowledge, Maya, Illusion, Kala, Skill and Art, Niyati, Self-Restraint and Tradition, Purusha, The Living Form as Man and Prakriti, The Inner Nature of the Absolute Man and Divine. These are the nine forms of Tatvas or Principles.
This is also known as Navatma or the nine types of Soul. Devi proceeds to ask, does it consist of the specific mantra that unites in an integral form the three divisions as delineated? Entire manifestation is broadly delineated into three primary categories consisting of Shiva, Shakti and Nar, which means living being. The mantra saw is specifically known as being a Parabhij or absolute seed.
and as a Hridayabij, which is a heart seed, as well as Prasad, which is an offering or blessing received from the Divine. This is supposed to cover 37 tattvas up to Shiva. Shiva, of course, represents the highest unbeknownst principle that unites all the principles together. The Devi asks if that is His real nature or does it consist of three Shaktis, presiding over the previously mentioned three takvas, the three shaktis presiding comprise of parashakti, the transcendent, in which there is no distinction between Shiva and Shakti, aparashakti, the imminent of the unmanifest, which is the essence of new reality, and parparashakti, which is the intermediate of the two, and is the bridge that presides over all the principles.
The independent and sovereign energy of Shiva, Svatantra Shakti, manifests itself as Parashakti, the Absolute. This energy, wishing to create a universe in reflection, is Parparashakti, both the origin and the result, intermediate of the two. And the imminent to creation as a new universe is Aparashakti.
These are contents referred to in the Rudrayamal Tantra, that which is a composite of male-female and Shiva-Shakti union? Or does it consist of Nada, which is power of mantra, inseparably present as Vimarsha, a pre-existent in all the words? In the fifth question, the Devi asks if essential reality is made of the bridge of sound as Vimarsha, the inner junction of that bridge and the letter Her, or of the Bindu, in the power of mantra, inseparably present in all the objects of the universe as per God. The light or illumination. Prakash is light which is present in an undivided form in all objective phenomena.
Or does it consist of the further subtle states or the sheets? The sheets after the nadbindu are Ardha Chandra, the crescent moon, Nirodhika, the opening gate of obstruction, Nadanta, the point where subtle sound blends out of outer sound. Shakti or pure energy, Vyapini, the all-encompassing and pervading, Samani, which is the inner cosmic stuff, and finally Unmani, which is the universal and all-inclusive.
This final state is complete cosmic unity. These sheets also correspond to the six Shunyas or zero in universal consciousness and to six primary states of practice within the Tantra. The first question is concerned with Matrat, which is half letters or vowels.
The second and third are concerned with Mantra. The fourth is concerned with the three Shaktis of the Divine. The fifth and sixth are concerned with Mantra Veera or power of Mantra.
She, the Goddess, proceeds. Or does it consist of some mysterious power presiding in the chakras, the energy centers in the body or the vowel-less sound Ha, the chakras and energy centers across the body and prana shakti resides in the Sushumna Nadi, the inner holy tabernacle. The sound Ha without the vowels vibrates constantly as the prana kundalini.
This happens spontaneously and cannot be consciously controlled. This sound is also known as the unstruck sound or the hansa. The hansa is also the mythical swan in the sky.
associated with Brahma in the constellation Cygnus and is otherwise called the Ajapa Mantra or Internally Continuous Mantra. And finally, the Devi asks if Pairav's inner nature consists purely of Shakti as undifferentiated energy. Shakti is supreme energy in a pure unchangeable state. The Devi further asks and clarifies her questions.
Is the nature of Aparashakti or immanent divinity and Paraparashakti or intermediate divinity a composite of lifetimes and consciousness? Or is even Parashakti, which is supreme energy, also part of that composite consciousness? How is it so that the transcendental indivisible coexists with the composite of its parts in lifetimes?
Shiva's Svatantra energy in Parashakti exists simultaneously in an existent and non-existent state, that which is known as Bhed Abhed, differentiation in attribute and no differentiation as an absolute. Please explain my doubts to me, the Devi implores Shiva. Between energy and the holder of energy, there is no difference at all to be found.
Always there is Abhid, unity between energy and the holder of energy, Shakti and Shiva. Lightening, giving light, burning, heating, all these energies are produced from the fire. Just as these energies are undifferentiated from fire, the three primal aspects of Shiva as an absolute are ascribed to be as divine as Srishta or the manifester of the entire universe. The Vishwaroopat Abhairav where His cosmic essence as consciousness is the entire universe, further differentiated in six ways, the Shadadva or pure paths as reflected, and Bhairav as Prasham, the paramount, in whose flame of Mahabodh or the universal consciousness everything is dissolved.
The word Yoga is used both in the sense of communion with the divine and the means or Upay for that communion. to divinity and as such the techniques of the tantra are just as the varying techniques in yoga furthermore the tantra incorporates aspects like mudras and hand gestures breath and other sound and dharan based practices while one primary school of thought as raja yoga prescribes the tantra as a purely intellectual and yogic practice in that they list six primary states each interestingly corresponding to a state of shunya or zero. The state of shunya exists without support, including that of the mind or thought constructs.
Yoga bhavana. This is a predisposition towards yoga practice or the right attitude. Yoga broadly refers to any techniques that one embraces in activity and discipline designed towards spiritual evolution.
This corresponds to the adhva shunya or the higher shunya. i.e. in the state of Shakti. Dharan Dharan means practice.
Dharan is also inferred as the act of becoming one with the action being performed. This corresponds to the Advishunya or the inner Shunya and resides as intention in the place of the heart. Dhyan Dhyan means concentration or focus.
This is also indicative of the act of meditation or mental absorption. This corresponds to the Madhva Shunya or the Middle Shunya, which is the region of throat, palate, third eye, forehead and Brahmarandhra, which is the spinal column of nerves and energy, Pratyahara. Pratyahara refers to the state of apprehending an object of knowledge or the act of perceiving.
It is the state of heightened awareness, where one corresponds through images in the mind and not words. This corresponds to the state of the mind. to the shunya of the vyapani state, where energy is all-pervasive and all-becoming, yoga. The fifth state of process is pure yoga, where the mind-body-spirit is fixed in its correct awareness. This corresponds to the shunya of samana.
Samana constitutes the entirety of a person's dense, unprocessed energies. Samadhi, a higher state of inner awareness or oneness with consciousness, is what is meant by Samadhi. Samadhi corresponds to the highest state of the Shunya, also known as Unmani. It is said in traditional schools of Tantra that these states are like states of differentiation and one by one have to be recognized and dropped.
That is what is the act of transcendence. It is further stated, through the perfected practice of the Vigyanbhair of Tantra, one achieves liberation while living, or the yogic state, of Moksha. According to most sources, the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is about 5,000 years old in origin, predating even the ancient history epic Mahabharata. A lot of ancient masters'works on the Tantra have been preserved in Raja Yoga and Kashmiri Trika philosophy, apart from other Himalayan traditions.
While the primary sources of knowledge systems and translations we have today belong to two notable mystic masters, Abhinav Gupta in the 12th century and his direct guru, Shemaraj. Abhinav Gupta also compiled an expansive treatise called the Tantra Sar, which deals with all the question-based aspects referred to by the Devi's questions. This in turn has allowed for a vast corresponding knowledge base of consciousness practices. According to Abhinav Gupta, the copies of Vijnan Bhairav Tantra Sanskrit scripture could be directly traced back to around 800 AD.
Since then, his system inspires a blend of these techniques with yoga to create a decidedly occult type of tradition. Another well-translated approach to the Tantra is by Acharya Lakshman Ju, which is worth looking into. as a novice to the scripture for an English reader, and a completely different tangential approach to this treatise however.
belongs to Osho. Osho's approach to the Tantra is totally radical from any other literature translations or the traditional approaches to the Vijnanbhair of Tantra. In so he paraphrases and converts every sutra into an actionable technique separate to every succinct technique and devoid of any religious inference.
Osho then describes in detailed discourses the state of mind to cultivate while considering a technique. This treatise is called Osho's Book of Secrets and is readily available. Although it is well over a thousand pages, do not let it deter you, however many years it takes.
Osho's ideology is based entirely on the concept of surrender. while subtly cultivating awareness. He prescribes each of the techniques with the context of his usage of the words, all the while subtly encouraging a certain way of thinking, similar to the systems of Shadadva or pure parts. This surrender then leads to transformation, which is instant, a different consciousness emerging from every practice and effort.
At any given moment, to Osho's treatises is a good moment to practice. According to Osho, a person only needs or requires one technique out of 112 and in trying each of them will instantaneously know which one fits as their unique personal key. In his noticeably heart-centered ideology to constant theory and practice, an aspirant's inner spiritual make changes.
This transformation and a new heightened state of consciousness is revisited as often as possible. as necessary until consolidation. And here, Osho says that a new version of yourself manifests, knowing your inner silence, and automatically with a sense of purpose. This authentic self, which is the result of Tantra, then instinctively senses which paths to seek out for spiritual evolution.
For as the movement of energy inside the body changes, so does the understanding of how energy processes to outer reality. And the universal way, then in Osho's approach to the Tantra, is to enter it in love and devotion, like the Sufis and mystics of yore, immersed in quintessence of God-consciousness, which is what the Sutras are. Where Osho's way is in stopping the world and sidestepping the mind into practice, the Shaivism approach to Tantra is rooted in theory and yoga. Tantra says that recognizing one's true nature, joy and bliss is a means for moksha or liberation to be achieved.
The varna or the attribute rises soundlessly or in subtle sound as prana is absorbed through the kundalini. This uchar or rising is an autonomous state as we enter heightened energy in union to the universe. Each of the techniques is like an attribute in itself.
and like the letters, reflects a way to look at consciousness. The inner divine can't be found easily, because it is always the perceiver, not the perceived. That is the bridge of the technique. And so, the right way of thought is effortlessly cultivated. This is known as the Shat-Taraka.
In this context, it does not mean logic chopping, but training the mind in harmonious consonance with the truth of the essential self as being Shiva. Taraka, incidentally, is also the Indian name of the dragon's constellation, or Draco, close to the North Pole. Shat Taraka represents one's highest inner truth. O Radiant One, this experience may dawn between two breaths.
After breath comes in or down, just before turning up or out, the beneficence, the result of every technique in contemplation, is awareness. The pranav sound of the cosmic OM has several uses and inferences in mystic treatises. It can be primarily interpreted in three ways.
The pranuyate, the supreme which is lauded by all. This is the Shakti Pranav, OM. Pranavati, that which protects the vital forces, the Shiva Om, the Prakarshana Navikaroti, or that which renovates everything and renews the soul, as it were, the Vedic Prana.
Although there are several techniques associated with the Om, the funnest one is as follows, splitting the Om into three or four different parts, A, U, M. A is to be contemplated in the navel, U in the heart, M in the mouth. According to Osho's scriptures, even visualizing the Sanskrit alphabet for Aum aids this process. The natural sound of the letter M is felt at the third eye or the body's bindu as a half note. Three and a half separate letters of contemplation in the navel, heart and throat chakra of the Aum fills the entire body up with its essence. According to Osho.
The letter U is a bridge for contemplation in itself and it allows for extra breath. He says to center on the sound Aum without the R and the M. Intone a sound audibly, then less and less audibly as feeling deepens into the silent harmony, utter consciousness.
That is what the Tantra is and beyond it is the subjective reality.