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The Tantric Reader's Value to the Yoga Community
This reader will provide to the public, mostly for the first time, access to source scriptures for modern Yoga, including the late corpus of so-called ‘Hatha Yoga’ manuals that post-date the Tantric period. Translations in the reader will illuminate audiences on the richness, intricacy, and sanctity of Tantric Yoga, through revelations that include the following:
The role and function of Yoga in Shaiva ritual. Passages in this Reader will show that Yoga was the cornerstone of the Tantrik ritual, as demonstrated by Dr. Somadeva Vasudeva's groundbreaking work, "The Yoga of the Mālinīvijayottara Tantra." Further in-depth studies, to be presented in the Tantric Reader, will show that Yoga was the very agency of fulfilling the ritual, whose goal was to cause the spiritual liberation of the practitioner within one lifetime. The rich and detailed Yoga practices of mantra recitation, prānāyāma, yogic dhāranās (visualizations) within Shaiva ritual. - The source teachings on the subtle body that is focused upon in Yoga practice. The layout of the subtle body, with its 7 cakras and elaborate system of channels (nadis), etc. (see below), has been given to modern audiences from late Hatha Yoga texts (ca. 15th-19th centuries). This Reader will, for the first time, present the original Tantric sources for the subtle body, which pre-date the Hatha Yoga texts by 500-800 years.
| Donate  An image of Parāvāc, Goddess of the 'Supreme Word,' also identified with Kundalinī. (Art by Benjamin McClintic) "That Ancient Power, infused within the sun (pingalā channel), fire (sushumnā channel), and moon (idā channel), is Kundalinī." - Kālottara Tantra 12.1 (ca. 7th to 8th centuries) | The origins of Kundalinī Shakti, as well as Her original role and function within Tantrik ritual, will be presented for the first time in a publication. The Tantric origins of the great ‘Coiled’ Goddess power will be revealed in one of the passages provided in the Reader. Again, the original role and purpose of Kundalinī revealed here pre-dates current sources by 500-800 years, and is much richer by contrast.
What is 'Tantric Yoga'? Yoga as it has been inherited in the modern world has its roots in Tantric ritual and in secondary passages (pādas) within Tantric scriptures, The practices of mantra, āsana (seat/pose), sense-withdrawal (pratyāhāra), breath-regulation (prānāyāma), mental (mantric) fixation (dhāranā), meditation (dhyāna), mudrā, the subtle body (sukshma shārīra) with its energy centers (chakras, ādhāras, granthis, etc.) and channels (nādīs), as well as the phenomenon of Kundalinī Shakti are but a few of the tenets that comprise Tantric Yoga. While some of these derive from earlier, pre-Tantric sources, such as the Hindu Upanishads and theYoga Sūtra, they were greatly expanded upon, ritualized, and philosophically contextualized in these medieval Tantras.
Tantric Yoga: the Sacred Source of Modern Yoga.
After the waning of the Tantric movement, which lasted about 700 years (ca. 600-1300 c.e.) and extended throughout India, some practices of Tantric Yoga were preserved and co-opted into the later (13th century forward) so-called “Hatha Yoga” manuals, such as the 15th century Hathayoga Pradīpikā and the 16th century Gheranda Samhitā. It is from these manuals that most modern knowledge of Yoga and the subtle body derives. Unfortunately, much of the material on Yoga presented in the Hatha Yoga manuals, though maintaining some Yoga practices from the elaborate Tantric rituals that preceded them, have largely forgotten the philosophical and ritual importance of Yoga in the latter. In some cases, the intricacy (and therefore efficacy) of Yoga practices such as breath-regulation (prānāyāma) is lost, as they often no longer resemble their Tantric precedents.
Those interested in Yoga may wish to note that that most contemporary writings that claim to discuss ‘Tantric Yoga’ are usually without citations from primary (actual) Tantric sources. This is because there are few currently available in translation. Nearly all writings on the subtle body, the cakra system, or Kundalinī, for example, draw from a work called Shat-Cakra-Nirupana, (“The Layout of the System of 6 Cakras”), translated in the mid-20th century by Sir John Woodroofe (a.k.a. Arthur Avalon). A late (16th century?) Hatha Yoga manual, the Shat-Cakra-Nirupana post-dates the earliest Tantric yoga sources by about 1000 years!
This discrepancy will begin to change with the advent of the Tantric Reader, which will contain many translations of Tantric source teachings on Yoga. |
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