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January 29, 2019

When Tantra Goes too Far

Tantra is a big topic that is burdened by much of its own baggage, baggage that seemingly never ceases to increase. From its inception, Tantra had “Power,” political, militaristic, and sexual, as primary motivations, something many modern Tantric practitioners are unaware of, and generally not presented by today’s Vajra Masters.  The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism says: “the term (Tantra) is notoriously difficult to define. It can be said, however, that tantra does not carry the connotation of all things esoteric and erotic that it has acquired in the modern West.”

All of us who have studied Buddhism or Hinduism have no doubt heard the term “Tantra” and some of us, me included, are practicing various Tantric meditations. We may have had the good fortune to meet an authentic and knowledgeable teacher to instruct us in Tantric practice. If so, we are the lucky ones, for often it is the erotic aspect of tantra that has in modern times made it particularly popular and most lucrative.

Tantra has a war loving quality, as well, and according to history, may have evolved as much as a tool justifying war as it did eroticism. India, during the centuries after the Buddha’s Nirvana, was a divided country with many large and small kingdoms and their vassals. These kings were constantly battling with each other, brutally murdering one another, pillaging wealth, and raping women, all the while for centuries patronizing Buddhism as a means for gaining popular support.

But the peaceful Buddhist model became an obstacle for royal- marshal ambitions, something that didn’t go unnoticed by their Hindu counterpart, who, seeing the weakness in Buddhism’s pacifism, crafted Shiva into a conquering hero, and over several decades were extraordinarily successful. So successful in fact, that the warring kings turned to Shiva at Buddhism’s expense. They built many extraordinary Shaiva temples and allowed the destruction of Buddhist temples by Shaivites, until the dominant religion of all Indian kings became Hindu Shaivism.  In fact, Shaivite ascetics were even armed and employed to guard the palaces.

The Buddhist response was the development of their own Tantra in an effort to once again gain royal patronage. The obliques “mandalas” with their geometric patterns radiating outward, and a central deity in the center, and various gods and goddesses, ghosts and demons in the periphery stages of the mandala, are symbols of the “kingdom,” with the king, of course, as “deity” occupying the center of the mandala. The various gods and goddesses surrounding the central deity represent the Tantric practitioners all too ready to incant spells to destroy the king’s enemies. While the historical Buddha admonished his disciples to stay out of politics, it is obvious that Tantra had many political ambitions. Often the central deity would be copulating, as well, another appeal to attract kingly grace.

Every proper dharma has its potential for abuse, but it seems like Tantra invites it. There is so much left for “interpretation” that one cannot wonder what the intention is. The extraordinary rise of Tantric Buddhism in the West has arisen with little light shown on its origins and many of its questionable practices.

In theory tantra sounds good, but I cannot help but wonder if it finds scarce successful execution, and that for the most part the Tantric practitioner is seeking a path to justify carnal appetites for sex, rage, and power. One of the most famous Tantras, the Guhyasamjatantra, for example, prescribes a ritual wherein a “ripe” disciple brings his Master a young girl, often virgin, around sixteen years old, and offers her to the Master” who copulates with her before his disciple, and generously offers his disciple the sacramental fluids generated by that copulation. C’mon now, what is going on here?

A 10th Century poem, roughly translated by Ronald Davidson in his excellent book, Indian Esoteric Buddhism:  goes:

“I don’t know mantra from tantra,

Nor meditation or anything about a teacher’s grace.

Instead, I drink cheap booze and enjoy some woman.

But I sure am going on to liberation, since I got the Kula path.

What’s more, I took some horny slut and consecrated her my “holy wife.”

Sucking up booze and wolfing down red meat,

My “holy alms” are whatever I like to eat,

My bed is but a piece of human skin.

Say, who wouldn’t declare this Kaula Religion

Just about the most fun you can have?”

This Tantric sentiment is Indian and not Buddhist in origin, but reflects exalted Tantrism’s wild side, whether Buddhist or Hindu. Maybe the speaker is in fact an enlightened master, but unless I am enlightened myself, how am I to know? Wouldn’t it be better for someone like myself to stick with the tried and proven and common-sense image of the “bhikkhu worthy of offerings” who keeps immaculate precepts and discipline and is “a fountain of merit and virtue?”

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