Path: shell.portal.com!shell.portal.com!not-for-mail From: (nagasiva) Newsgroups: alt.magick.tantra,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.religion.sexuality,alt.religion.buddhism,talk.religion.buddhism,alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan Subject: Various Tantras Discussion Date: 13 Apr 1996 02:58:27 -0700 Organization: Portal Communications (shell) Lines: 108 Sender: tyagi@shell.portal.com Message-ID: <4knts3$4tq@jobe.shell.portal.com> References: <3168209A.3108@sonic.net> <4kf1rf$qrc@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <316C0373.31DA@sonic.net> <4kirif$q25@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <316CD4C9.5F84@sonic.net> Reply-To: (nagasiva) NNTP-Posting-Host: jobe.shell.portal.com Xref: shell.portal.com alt.magick.tantra:1116 alt.magick.tyagi:7633 alt.religion.sexuality:12270 alt.religion.buddhism:269 talk.religion.buddhism:19498 alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan:7374 kaliyuga 49960413 I loved ms yronwode's offering on tantra and would demonstrate this through a lauding critique. catherine yronwode : |Okay -- here is the text, for those without web access. even those of us with web access don't get to every site and look at every essay. articles on tantra which are lying about on the web would make good discussion-fodder for this newsgroup, as this one proves |A SHORT DEFINITION OF TANTRA |by catherine yronwode yummy, and as brief as you promised |Tantra (a Sanskrit word which means "woven together") I favor this etymology also, though I gather it is rather more complex than this (you did say simple :>) |loosely applied to a system of Hindu yoga in which the union of |male and female principles is worshipped. playing fast and loose I take it. I'd suggest 'masculine' and 'feminine' are worshipped, often as Sakti and Siva where Hindus |In practice, this has led to a form of sexual ritual in which slow, |non-orgasmic intercourse is seen as a path to an experience of the |divine. most Hindu tantric yogis would probably disagree with this. those I've read seem more conservative and ascetic than these words imply |A modified [version] of Hindu Tantra can also be found in Tibetan |Buddhism. wow, I'll bet that could begin a mammoth discussion (the relationship between the two, etc.) |The term tantra is also -- for the sake of convenience -- applied |to other (primarily Western) religious or spiritual practices in |which slow, non-orgasmic sexual union or masturbation create a |path to the expreience of spiritual ecstasy. you sure this is the typical reference? normally when I hear Buddhists or Hindus talk about 'tantra' they are discussing some lifestyle which includes particular mystical disciplines, usually not overtly sexual |...Each "discoverer" gave his or her system a unique name -- Male |Continence, The Better Way, Karezza, The Anseiratic Mysteries, |Zussagent's Discovery, Magnetation, etc. this batch of text is why I'm writing. I find this intriguing. does this range of verbiage indicate a lack of concise and ACCEPTED means of referring to the same activity/behavior? are all of these things *really* the same? I have seldom seen physical instructions in association with the names given above (and am not familiar with the last three in any case). do the authors ever get to details? |Tantra has persisted as a religion and a spiritual path for millennia there is much debate as to whether tantra really qualifies as 'religion' as compared to 'something related to religion', which may be why it has so many different faces (in Buddhism alone: Shingon, Vajrayana, Avidyana) |...despite... the persecution of sexuality in most modern civilizations. well said. |...sacred sex redundant or qualifying, in either case awkward |continues to arise spontaneously .... you're not trying to make puns here, are you? |is based upon the neurological hard-wiring of the human body; you sure? not just a hat trick? |...is something which, when practiced correctly, allows the participants |to experience what seems to be -- what IS, for all intents and |purposes -- the presence of deity in the person of the sex partner. how would we compare? is the sex you mention different than 'deity' (whatever this is)? lots of people seem to think so, even self-identified tantrics. find me a deity, then we can match the two up. hmmmm.... nagasiva