Tantra is probably
the most misunderstood branch of Indian religious practices. An ancient
practice that dates back to the 5th-9th century CE, the common
perception about tantra is that it is a kind of black magic.
However, the truth is that tantra is the science of life, a way of living, which aims to remove all roadblocks towards liberation. While some spiritual practices consider material pleasures as forbidden and obstructing progress on the spiritual path, thereby causing a constant internal battle within the spiritual seeker that involves self-condemnation and guilt, the tantric perspective is that our ignorance of our true nature is the only real impurity.
Tantra says be the way you are: impulses, imperfections and all. It doesn’t tell you to go against your impulses or to fight against your being. Tantra simply teaches the transmutation of energy.
It teaches one to transform hate into love, to transform sex into samadhi, to go from anger to acceptance, from ego to surrendering. Tantra allows you to transform kama (sexual energy), krodha (anger), moha (attachments), lobha (greed) and ahankara (ego).
Each of us are born in this life with these qualities that belong to our lower nature. Instead of resisting them, suppressing them or denying them, tantra teaches you to embrace these aspects of ourselves and use them as catalysts for self-awakening. Through the use of meditation, mantra recitation and visualisation, your ordinary perception can be transformed into a pure perception. Then, everything becomes sacred.
The word ‘tantra’ is a combination of the two words ‘tattva’ and ‘mantra.’ Tattva means the science of cosmic truth, while mantra is the science of mystical sounds and vibrations. Thus, tantra is the utilisation of cosmic science to reach higher spiritual heights.
Our world comprises opposite and polar energies. Hot-cold, dark-light, good-bad, male-female, and so on. Everything in creation is a manifestation of these divine polarities.
These opposites are classified as Shiva and Shakti, the male and female forces in nature. Shiva is the Destroyer and represents Universal Consciousness. Shakti is the Divine Mother who gives birth to all creation. This is the mystical connection between Shiva and Shakti. Shiva and Shakti are one, but they hold the power, freedom and wisdom to appear in various ways. All beings are expressions of this endless life process of Shiva-Shakti.
During the movement from imperfection to perfection, an individual passes through three stages: In the first stage, a person is completely controlled by animal instincts. In the next stage, the person gains control over these instincts. In the final stage, after constant struggle and effort, the human being becomes Divine. Tantra reveals the cosmic circle through which a soul moves from a lower state of consciousness to the highest state of consciousness.
I received the above article from my friend Zilvinas Andrikonis, to read more go here: The Science of Tantra
