Tantra - What is Really and How it Works
This series is an introduction to Tantra. It presents basic concepts, practices and forms. The tradition now called ‘Tantra’ is indeed very ancient but it was not until 19th century European scholars began studying these scriptures that the term was adopted. Practitioners over the last 1,500 years would not have used the term until the modern era. In the contemporary West, Tantra has been misaligned with oriental and exotic fantasies (mostly sexual) - but then the tradition rejects nothing and uses everything, radically different that ‘orthodox’ religious practices both in the West and India. In contemporary India it is popularly considered ‘black magic’. First, all religious practice, orthodox or not, is driven by magical ideas and practices intended to improve the life of the individual and the community. Second, desire or aspiration is the essential force of all religious practice. Simply, we want/need something and we select various means (prayer, ritual, fasting, study, etc.) to achieve it. Tantra boldly declares that we must use our desires as fuel and work through them in order to acquire greater love, awareness, understanding and to achieve or experience ‘gnosis’ or in Sanskrit ‘jñana’.
Here is a list of lessons with the topics presented: