Tantra: A Much-Misunderstood Path to Liberation (Prabuddha Bharata, January 2016) (original) (raw)
Kiss of the yogini, 2004
and others, a new serious, critical and academic work on Tantra is always a welcome addition. This is mainly because many previous works on Tantra have tended to be folios that go under the guise of art books with naughty pictures that grace the coffee tables of the well to do. For most people, the very mention of Tantra conjures up images of Khajuraho and perhaps so with good reason. When I was asked to review White's book, I was curious as to know to which category it belonged.
Exploring the Changing Connotation and Unfolding the Historiography of Tantra
2019
Tantra is represented as one of the most mysterious and demonized forms of scared space in Indic religious traditions. This received understanding is often synonymized with words like dark and evil edges of sacred spaces. Tantra has developed as a fascinating theme for exploration in the writings of both Indian and Western scholars. This fascination can be said to have augmented as ‘Tantra’ itself have undergone through a phase of shift and transformation in respect of its meaning and historiography. Meaning of the word ‘Tantra’ had transformed, which gave away different versions with each phase. In the initial phase, it meant knowledge of the objective world, whereas recent phase represents it as an esoteric sect. Likewise, the historiography of Tantra also had transformed from claiming it to be an inevitable part of Vedic tradition to viewing it as a separate entity from it which had an individualistic domain of its own. Both Western and Indian scholars have contributed to enrich ...
A Strand of Contemporary Tantra: Its Discourse and Practice in the FPMT
This paper utilizes the data obtained from fieldwork conducted at Vajrayana Institute, a Buddhist centre affiliated with the worldwide Gelugpa Tibetan Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), to explore the approach to and practice of Tantra in a contemporary Western Buddhist context. In particular, this paper highlights the seriousness with which Tantra is treated in this religious setting, challenging Urban’s statement, largely based on his examination of the Western appropriation of Hindu Tantra, that the West has appropriated Tantra as a form of spiritual hedonism. The paper describes the orientation toward Tantric activity within the FPMT by outlining its relationship to the following aspects of religious activity: to sutra study and practice, ethical training and the Mahayana motivation, the role of taking refuge, and to the purpose of initiation and keeping Tantric commitments.
Selected fragments of the book Principles of Tantra
Selected fragments of: Principles of Tantra Volume I and II. Arthur Avalon. The TantraTattva of Shriyukta Shiva Candra Vidyârnava Bhattacârya Mahodaya Published by Virendra N. Tiwari for Shivalik Prakashan, First Edition Delhi 2011
Encountering the Other: Tantra in the Cross-cultural Context
2011
This article focuses on the cultural appropriation of Tantra in India and the West. The term ‘Tantra’ evokes one sentiment in contemporary India, the birthplace of Tantra, and a widely divergent meaning in the West. In these contrasting understandings of Tantra as the black magic or as sex, the sacred of some has been turned into an object for appropriation and commodification for others. This shift relies on identifying Tantra as the ‘other’, in relation to what the mainstream culture defines itself as the ‘self’. Due to secretive nature of Tantric tradition since the classical times, Tantra has never found its own voice, and with the mainstream culture claiming the power over truth, marginal voices repressed within the rubric of Tantra have never been heard. The emergence of religious consumerism has assisted in peeling off this secretive Tantric body, bringing the heart of sacred practices from India to the consumers in the West.
Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Hinduism and Tribal Religions, 2020
Forthcoming overview article on Hindu tantric traditions.
‘Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution – an illustrated talk’
The Middle Way: Journal of the Buddhist Society, Vol.96, No.3, pp.3-30 , 2021
Imma Ramos gives an illustrated introduction to the British Museum’s recent ‘Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution’ exhibition, exploring how the countercultural philosophies of Tantra – which emerged in India in about AD 500 – developed and spread across Asia and beyond.
Tantra Reilluminated: An Emic View of Its History and Practice
Tarka , 2022
Tantra has received increasing interest among scholars and the public in recent years. Its historical origins and practices, however, are not so well understood. Sometimes misinterpreted or misrepresented, traditional Tantra is often veiled in a mist of popular myths. In the Indian imagination, Tantra is generally considered to be a dark art of magic, while in the West, it is popularized as an expression of sacred sex. However, these simplifications and misconceptions are beginning to change. In this essay, Tantric history and practice are viewed from inside the tradition rather than mainly from textual sources.
Tantra and Its Effect on Society
“So it is not by democracy, but by entrusting power to the true Tantrics, that equality in the economic and social spheres must be established in this material world.” “The process of transforming latent divinity into the Supreme Divinity is known as Tantra”, according to Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar. P. R. Sarkar, (1921-1990), was a spiritual teacher (also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) in the tradition of Shiva and Krishna, who propounded PROUT (Progressive Utilization Theory) and who founded the socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga (“the Path of Bliss”). – Richard Gauthier, Department of Chemistry and Physics, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California, USA, May 2, 2021.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2023
Tantra is historically one of the most important but also most o en misunderstood, understudied, and poorly defined currents within the Hindu and Buddhist traditions of South Asia. Widely dismissed by European Orientalist scholars and Christian missionaries as a degenerate form of black magic and debauchery, Tantra has been embraced by contemporary popular and New Age audiences as a liberated path of sensual pleasure and sexual freedom. While it has been defined in many di erent ways by modern scholars, Tantra has played a central but o en ambivalent role in South Asian religious, social, and political history. In the 21st century, Tantra remains an important though o en misunderstood religious presence, both in the few surviving Tantric lineages of South Asia and in the various popular forms of tantra-mantra (in India) and "Neo-Tantra" (in Europe, England, and North America).
Indo Nordic Author's collective, 2023
13 Essays of the author on TANTRIC BUDDHISM and Esoteric structures
Convenors: Dr Monika Hirmer and Dr Fabio Armand Presenters: Prabhavati Reddy - George Mason University, Virginia, USA Stefano Beggiora - University Ca' Foscari, Venezia, Italy James Mallinson - SOAS, University of London, UK Lidia Guzy - University College Cork, Ireland William Sax - Heidelberg University, Germany Annette Hornbacher - Heidelberg University, Germany Ruth Westoby - SOAS, University of London, UK Lubomír Ondračka - Charles University, Prague, Richard David Williams - SOAS, University of London, UK Fabio Armand - Lion University, France Monika Hirmer - SOAS, University of London, UK SOAS, University of London, BG 01, Brunei Gallery 20-21 April 2023 In collaboration with: European Association for South Asian Studies (EASAS) SOAS Centre for Yoga Studies (SCYS) Lyon Catholic University SOAS, University of London ___________________________________________ OVERVIEW AND AIMS: This two-day international workshop has brought together scholars from France, UK, India, Germany, Italy and Ireland to discuss their latest research in the field of tantric, shamanic and folk traditions in South Asia, with particular focus on these traditions’ relevance to contemporary times, also as potential resources.
The Ethnography of Tantra: Textures and Contexts of Living Tantric Traditions
SUNY, 2023
edited by Carola Lorea and Rohit Singh [this is just an old version of the proof pages of our Introduction: please do not cite from this pdf but from the published book.] This is the first collection of essays to approach the topic of Tantric Studies from the vantage point of ethnography and lived religion, moving beyond the centrality of written texts and giving voice to the everyday life and livelihoods of a multitude of Tantric actors. Bringing together a team of international scholars whose contributions range across diverse communities and traditions in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan region, the book connects distant shores of Tantric scholarship and lived Tantric practices. The contributors unpack Tantra’s relationship to the body, ritual performance, sexuality, secrecy, power hierarchies, death, magic, and healing, while doing so with vigilant sensitivity to decolonization and the ethics of fieldwork. Through diverse ethnographies of Tantra and attention to lived experiences and life stories, the book challenges normative definitions of Tantra and maps the variety of Tantric traditions, providing comparative perspectives on Tantric societies across regions and religious backgrounds. The accessible tone of the ethnographic case studies makes this an ideal book for undergraduate or graduate audiences working on the topic of Tantra. https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-Ethnography-of-Tantra