Tantra As Practice, Ritual and Yoga-Bettina Baumer
Tantra As Practice, Ritual and Yoga-Bettina Baumer
Tantra As Practice, Ritual and Yoga-Bettina Baumer
Fourth Lecture
The three introductory lectures have prepared us for the actual purpose for
the last and may be most important topic of today: Tantra as practice. It may
sound impossible to treat two vast subjects like ritual and yoga in a single lecture,
but, as before, we have to be content to consider the basic principles of both, and
to illustrate them with selected examples. At the outset it has to be stressed that
ritual and yoga are closely related, if not inseparable. It would be to oversimplify
matters to say that ritual is external activity (kriyā) and yoga internal, because
there is no tantric ritual without meditation or visualization (dhyāna), without
mantra and japa, and breath control (prāṇayāma). Besides, yoga or internalized
spiritual practice is often a substitute for ritual by interiorisation, but ritual
remains the paradigm. However, having said this, we do have to present the two
subjects separately. In fact, the most important link is the whole domain of
mantra.
I. Ritual:
You will find most correspondences between your Buddhist and Śaiva tantric
ritual practice, because they have had a parallel development and mutual
influences. It is therefore not so much the description, but the meaning of the
ritual elements which concerns us here.1 The two kinds of ritual on which we are
concentrating are: initiation (dīkṣā) and regular a occasional pūjā.
First some common features:
Tantric ritual puts into practice all the elements of the tantric universe, as we have
seen in the context of the tattvas. It can be called an actualization of the basic
principles, which otherwise would remain abstract. What happens in tantric ritual
is an operation of the divine energies – or energy – by channalising and, in a way,
1
I refer to the excellent study by A. Sanderson, Meaning in Tantric Ritual (New Delhi, 2006).
2
manipulating them. Therefore the external action is only the tip of the iceberg, as
it were, beneath which the play of energies is happening.
Every ritual performance involves the practitioner with body, mind and
speech, or rather: vāk-kāya-citta. The three elements of the total human being are
so closely related that, for instance, uttering a mantra goes along with a mudrā or
gesture, and with a mental concentration or imagination. The external objects used
in worship, an icon, a maṇḍala, a water pot, fire etc., are so to say an extension
from the body to the cosmic elements which are all involved in the process. Every
ritual, whether simple daily worship of the deity or an elaborate initiation, requires
and effects a transformation of the agent or agents. Therefore the necessary
process of purification of the body of the worshipper and its transformation into a
divine “body of energy” (śāktadeha). Both, in the dualist Śaiva Siddhānta and in
the non-dualist Trika, the dictum of the Āgamas is taken seriously: “without being
a god one cannot worship god”, or “becoming Śiva one should worship Śiva”.
This involves the ritual purification (bhūta-śuddhi) and re-construction of the
divine body. It can also involve in different ritual situations states of possession
(āveśa) by the deity or Śakti.
Another element linking ritual and yoga closely is precisely the tantric
understanding of the body. I would dare to say that the basic misunderstanding of
Tantra, mainly in the West, is due to different conceptions of the body. The tantric
body is not only a microcosm containing and reflecting the macrocosm, it is a
symbolic body, with its channels and energy centers (nāḍī and cakra). It is the
locus of all the deities and the place for all sacred sites in the sacred geography.
Thus the substratum for both, ritual and yoga, is not the physiological materiality,
but the organism of energy. It is prāṇa, the life-energy which constitutes the link
between physicality and spirituality, and hence its importance in all yogic and
mantric practices.
The importance of sexual power, sexual symbolism and rituals, has to be
seen in this light of the tantric vision of the body.
3
2
Cf. Somaśambhupaddhati, Troisiéme partie, ed. and trnsl. into French by Hélène Brunner,
Pondichery, IFI, 1977.
4
3
Summary of the ritual based on Tantrāloka, by A. Sanderson, Maṇḍala and Āgamic Identity in
the Trika of Kashmir, p. 174-176.
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“son of Śiva’. He is fully entitled to perform all the rituals and study the
scriptures. Finally there is the initiation of a master, ācārya dīkṣā, the highest,
which presupposes the nirvāṇa dīkṣā, and it is given mostly by the Guru to his
chosen successor.
Now in Śaiva Siddhānta ritual is essential to purify the disciple and allow
him access to liberation. In non-dualist Trika or Kashmir Śaivism elaborate ritual
can be replaced by a spiritual act. Thus the Tantras mention the alternatives that
the graceful look, touch, or word by an accomplished master is sufficient to
achieve the same goal of transforming and purifying the disciple, and granting
him or her access to the highest experience.
In this tradition there is another kind of yogic dīkṣā called "initiation by
penetration" (vedha dīkṣā), which is operated by the transfer of the Guru's spiritual
power in the breath of the disciple, effecting an intense union of Guru and
disciple. It leads to an awakening of the kuṇḍalinī energy in the central vein of the
disciple, making him ascend to the total fusion with the Absolute. The highest
form of this is the paravedha dīkṣā, leading to divinisation of the initiate.
The difference between the dualistic and non-dualistic approach to ritual
lies also in the former (Siddhānta) following the brahmanical distinction between
pure and impure, which determines the entire life-style (dvaitācārya), whereas the
Trika advocated the practice of non-dualisty or advaitācāra. This means the
conscious overcoming of the vedic distinction by involving contact with impure
persons and substances in their ritual. This practice was meant to liberate
consciousness from the contraction (saṅkoca) and inhibition which holds it in
bondage,4 and by overcoming orthodoxy to lead to a state of transcendence. A.
Sanderson sums it all up in the statement: "Transgression, then, is translated into
transcendence." This, of course, implies the breaking of caste and gender barriers.5
4
Cf. A. Sanderson, Meaning in Tantric Ritual, p. 17, 78f.
5
Kṣemarāja accuses the dualists of "being in the grip of the demon Caste"! (SvTVI.75)
6
What about the daily or occasional ritual of pūjā? The initiate is supposed
to perform daily worship of the deity, apart from a number of other rituals.
It would lead too far to go into a description of the rituals, and I want to
give only the basic elements and their spiritual meaning given by the Tantras of
the left and their exegetes. Again and again it is stressed that the external ritual
has to be internalized. As far as the worship of iconic forms, the Śivaliṅga or
images is concerned, “it is the mantras rather than the iconic forms which may be
associated with them that are the essential embodiments of the deities of Tantric
worship. There are cults of aniconic mantras but not of icons which are not
mantras”.6 Mantras are thus central to both, ritual and yogic practice.
The other elements of worship are mudrā, ritualized and powerful gestures,
nyāsa, imposition of mantras with mudrās, on the worshipper’s body, and
maṇḍala, the sacred diagram.
The Śaiva non-dualists face the problem, also with regard to dīkṣā, that
ritual always implies a duality (between worshipper and object of worship, as well
as action) which seems to contradict the fundamental non-duality. Abhinavagupta
has a wonderful expression in his Tantrāloka. The ritual context is the nyāsa
(imposition of mantras) on the arghapātra, the sacrificial jar, which is then
worshipped with mantras (TĀ 15.146). Then he says:
Since all things (hence also the objects and elements of worship) are
inseparable from Śiva, either as bestowing supernatural powers (siddhi, in
the case of the worshipper seeking them), or in fullness (for the one
seeking liberation), the same applies in worship to the factors of action.147
All the elements of (ritual) action are clearly revealed to be inseparable
from Śiva.
Since everything is in the paradigm (model) of worship, this applies even
to daily activities like walking etc.148
6
A. Sanderson, Meaning in Tantric Ritual, p. 21.
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This means that the activities of the enlightened one are performed on the
paradigm of worship, which pervades all ordinary actions as non-different from
the Divine. Thus both, worship in all its actions is a contemplative exercise, and
worldly activities are pervaded by the same worshipful attitude.
Right from the Tantras to their interpretation by the Śaiva authors we find
numerous examples of substitution of ritual acts by contemplation or spiritual acts.
This is often called the “true, not created” worship (vāstava, akalpita). Here
worship is translated into purely cognitive terms. To give another example of a
purely spiritual worship of the deity with its various actions.
Cleansed by joyfully immersing himself in this universe brimming with the
<liquid>/<bliss> (rasaḥ) of his awareness, (Libations): he should gratify
the entire sequence of the cosmic hierarchies. (Ash-bath): The bath (which
follows) is the immersion of his body and other (levels of contracted
selfhood) in the ‘white ash’ which remains of the universe when he has
incinerated it in the fire of his expansive awareness. (Visualization of the
burning of the body, etc.): When he has performed the rites of ablution and
gratified the infinite deities in this way he should ‘purify’ the levels of
reality (tattvam) which have given rise to his body (and the rest).
(Imposition of the ‘body’ and pantheon of mantras): True impurity is the
idea that these (contracted entities) are other than Śiva, even though they
are identical with him. True purification is the obliteration of this idea. So
he comes to see that his ‘body’ contains nothing but consciousness, that it
is free of duality: and so he rests omnipotent in the autonomy of pure
awareness. (Self-worship): Whatever delights his mind in any of the fields
of the senses is then ‘placed’ <in the light of the real which is
Brahma>/<upon that place of nectar which is (the aperture of) Brahmā>
For it is thus that it becomes a true offering (to the circle of the powers of
consciousness). (Making offerings): As for the presentation of offering to
the deities (pūjā), in its true form this is the reunion of the alienated totality
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of phenomena with the autonomous, pure and infinite self which is the
consciousness of Bhairava.
Tantrāloka 4.115-22 (transl. by Sanderson, Meaning, p. 50-51)
What all this shows is that external forms to be worshipped are secondary
to internal understanding of the meaning of the ritual actions. Besides, the mantras
are more important than the object under worship.7
The Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra gives at the end a spiritualised meaning of
the ritual actions: homa, yāga, snāna, pūjā etc. For example:
Worship (pūjā) does not consist in offering flowers abd other substances.
The real worship consists rather in setting one’s mind firmly on the
supreme Void of thought-free consciousness. This woeship is an absorption
with great fervour and respect. 147
Real oblation (homa) consists in offering all the elements, the senses and
sense-objects along with the mind into the fire of the Great Abode of the
Void, using awareness as the sacrificial ladle. 149
Real sacred bath (snāna) is called absorption into the essential nature of
one’s own Self. This Self is the universal essence of freedom, bliss and
consciousness.152
II. Yoga
We have seen that the spiritualization of ritual, or the internalized ritual is
already a form of Yoga or contemplation. If we speak of Yoga in the context of
tantric Śaivism, it means spiritual practice in general, as the title of the section of
any Āgama implies. What we will consider in this very condensed presentation of
a vast topic is, on the one side, the relation of this form of yoga to the well-known
Yoga of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra, on the other side the classification of the upāyas
as spiritual ways, as based on the Mālinīvijayottara Tantra and developed by
7
“The identity of a Tantric deity rests principally in its mantra and only secondarily and
dispensably in its icon”. A. Sanderson, The Visualization of the deities of the Trika, p. 78.
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divine Power lying dormant in the body of every conscious being, and which can
be awakened by introspection and spiritual practice. The entire system of
‘imagining’ the yogic body with its channels (nāḍī) and nerve-centres (cakra or
granthi) is underlying this practice and experience. By rising through the cakras,
which implies a piercing them, from the lowest to the highest (brahmarandhra)
and even beyond the body to the dvādaśānta (end of the twelve) above, the yogī is
united with the Supreme Śakti and attains a state of universal pervasion (vyāpti).
See for instance two verses of the early Vijñāna Bhairava:
Meditate on the Śakti rising from the mūladhāra (cakra) which is luminous
like the rays of the sun and which gets subtler and subtler until it dissolves
in dvādaśānta. Then the awakening to Bhairava will occur. V. 28
(Meditate on) the rising Śakti like lighting, as it moves upward from one
cakra to the other until it reaches dvādaśānta. At the end is the great
awakening. 29
According to the Śaiva Tantras, there are three stages of kuṇḍalinī: prāṇa
kuṇḍalinī, connected with the breath and hence an energy which can be ‘felt’ in
the body; cit kuṇḍalinī, which is experienced by awareness on any center, and
parā kuṇḍalinī which is not different from the cosmic and divine Energy. It cannot
be an object of experience. But the awakening of kuṇḍalinī is attributed to an
intense ‘descent of power’ (śaktipāta) or grace, which is not the result of any
practice. The rise of kuṇḍalinī is also associated with the practice of mantra
(uccāra). The ascending energy of the mantra, mainly a bīja mantra like OṂ,
HUṂ, HRĪṂ, SAUḤ, along with the energy of prāṇa, passes through twelve
stages, reaching to the supreme level of unmanā, “beyond the mind”.
The most important spiritual centres are the central vein (madhyānāḍī or
suṣumnā), in which the two forms of breath (prāṇa-apāna) have to enter in order
to take the path of ascent, and the Heart, again not the physical organ but the heart
cakra. Both are often called madhya without specification.
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opinion, even among scholars, that Tantra is only a practice without a philosophy.8
The contrary is true. The reason why the philosophy has not been given its due
recognition is, on the one hand, that it does not fit into the scheme of the six
orthodox Darśanas, being considered outside the Veda. Interestingly, when
Buddhism is called vedabāhya by the school of Mīmāṃsā (Kumārila), the Śaivas
have been called vedabāhyatara, even more removed from the Veda! The other
reason may be that this system, as the entire tantric literature of Kashmir, has been
discovered only in the last decades of the 20th century, and hence has found its
entry into histories of Indian philosophy only very recently.9 In fact, Kashmir,
which has been the cradle of many important traditions, texts and disciplines, “the
privileged land of Indian culture”10, has brought forth the system of Pratyabhijñā,
“Recognition”, which has come to “provide the theoretical bases for all Hindu
Tantrism” (ibid.), irrespective of “sectarian” identities, like Vaishnava, Śaiva, etc.
This is a philosophy of Consciousness which, in its non-dualism, goes beyond the
Advaita Vedānta. Its basic insight is the self-recognition of the true essential
nature (svarūpa). It has been developed in close dialogue with the Buddhist
logical-epistemological school (Dharmakīrti etc.). Spiritually the act of
recognition corresponds to the highest upāya, and to sudden enlightenment.
However, being a system of “supreme non-dualism” (paramādvaita), it does not
exclude any practice or theory, at their respective level.
This fact had at least to be mentioned, without elaborating it. A dialogue
between Pratyabhijñā or Kashmir Śaivism and Buddhism, as it was led from the
9th to the 13th centuries, would even today be very fruitful both spiritually and
philosophically. Maybe this is a humble beginning.
8
Cf. the misleading remark by George Feuerstein: “Tantrism’s contribution to philosophy is negligible.
Its unicity lies wholly within the practical sphere, the sādhanā…” The Essence of Yoga, p. 176-177.
9
For an excellent and brief redressal of this onesidedness, cf. R. Torella, The Philosophical Traditions
of India, Varanasi (Indica) 2011.
10
Op.cit. p. 117.
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But let me end with a description of the state reached by this supreme
yoga:11
1. When the yogī, his mind and breath merged in the inner goal,
directs his gaze outward, without blinking,
himself seeing, yet as it not seeing,
by your grace, Master, this is the divine mudrā.
This reality indeed is the state of Śiva,
beyond both void and non-void.
3. Each word from his mouth is a supernatural mantra
the posture of his body, cause of joy and suffering,
is itself the mystic mudrā. The spontaneous flow
of his breath is truly the wonderful yoga.
When I realize the supreme light-filled domain
of Divine Energy, what does not shine?
11
Anubhavanivedana by Abhinavagupta.