To: Personal Email
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (Hsi Wang Mu)
Subject: General Religion Discussion
Date: 4995013 [Friday the 13th]
Quoting: |>Mu
         |anonymous
 
|> I call my own way 'tantric monasticism'.  It is meta-religion, drawing from
|> all religions and beyond.  

|Does this have anything to do with tantra yoga ... the yoga that uses sex 
|as a bridge to enlightenment?  

I don't find that tantric yoga is at all compatible with my style of life.
I tend to favor unstructured, lazy living, doing what comes naturally to
me, living simply, and weaving the teachings of the world into a stew that
I find palatable. 

While I can say that I don't find what I know of tantric yoga valuable to me,
I hope you can see that what I mean by 'tantric monasticism' is not about
particular practices, ideas or appearances.  I interpret the terms in their
roots: 'tantra' implies to me 'weaving', whereas 'monas' implies to me 
'unity'.  Therefore 'tantric monasticism' is a way that I weave all into one, 
and, as a discipline, one into all.

My particular type of tantrism will not be the same as anyone else's.  Note
that there are at least two styles of popular tantrism today associated with
the East -- one of these is indeed Hindu tantrism, which seems popularly
to focus heavily upon sexuality and ascetic rigor; the other is tantric
buddhism, in Tibet, and this appears to be a type of magical worship, wherein
one integrates oneself through interaction with the deities of the tradition,
some wrathful and some beneficent.

I do not believe that enlightenment is separate from us at this moment, though
we may separate ourselves from *it*.  That is, we but have to realise how
we are already enlightened in order to benefit from it.  We are perfect
already, and while we change over time and may feel a need to change ourselves
in order to realize our enlightenment, I don't think that there is a real
difference between where we are now and 'what we are going to' (which will
be where we are now, later :>).  That is, there is no goal.  We simply are.


|Or are you using tantra in some other sense.

I have not found that many people who associate with tantrism do so as I do.
Most seem to feel that it is either a Buddhist or Hindu pursuit or, in the
popular Western pursuits, some means to obtain awakening through the activity
of sexuality.  I do enjoy indulgence as part of my practice, but I try not to 
'use sex' in order to 'get something'.  In fact, I'm not trying to get
anything or anywhere different than here and now.  I have found no other
context for this experience.
 

|>Mu

|Is that your name?  

Some call me Mu, yes.  The full name is Hsi Wang Mu, Queen Mother of the
West.


|If so, what is "Tyagi"?  

It is my legal name, though it is more a title than anything else.  I take
it to mean 'monk' and I gather it is roughly translated 'one who sacrifices
all'.  The surname (or proper name) is 'nagasiva', which I constructed as
an honorific of both Siva and Nagarjuna.  I took this name as I dedicated
myself to Kali.


|What ethnicity are you?   

Northern European heritage, entirely.

Mu