TANTRA ORIGINS: HINDUISM
According to encyclopaedia Brittanica: tantra is ‘any of numerous texts dealing with the esoteric practices’ of—at least one—Hindu, sect. We redefine ‘new-age’, ‘Neo’ and by definition, the even-less-accessible, more-indigenous and secret tantric ‘classical’ practices for those curious about tantra.
Part 1
ABSTRACT
‘The earliest known use of the noun’ tantrism ‘is in the 1870s’ of the common era, CE. More specifically: the Oxford English dictionary’s—OED’s—‘earliest evidence for Tantrism is from 1877’ CE, ‘in the writing of M. Williams.’
That is:
25, 541.5 years TRAPCAT Polaris
According to our website’s previously introduced system of dating, linked to here.
The Indian subcontinent was explored and conquered by the British empire. So whatever tantric practices were therein permit, we define here as neo-tantra.
New age tantra may be even more removed from its roots. This developed in a culture whose contemporary cultural aspirations vastly differ from those of neo-tantra and classical tantrism, before that.
INTRODUCTION
The present article sets the stage, charting the timeline leading towards the birth of tantrism—a ‘spiritual’ practice nested within Hinduism. It is part of a short series of articles intended to relate and comment upon our source—eventually linked to here.
The article series not only is intended to give an internal overview on tantrism. It is also aimed to provide some historical and philosophical context to the claims made of tantrism.
CONTEXT & BACKGROUND
The present article was sourced from a lecture series introducing Hinduism, one of the
world’s great religions. In its totality, the lectures investigate a variety of dimensions that are important in answering the aforementioned faith’s fundamental questions.
This would be of interest to comparative religions’ serious students. For the reader of this article, we have picked out parts alluding to secret tantric teachings—the juiciest bits—so to speak.
We have paraphrased the course’s material pertaining directly to tantra, and use this article as a potential springboard for deeper-diving.
The source—revealed at series’-end—progresses chronologically through Hinduism’s history, from its earliest known precursors. The source then navigates through Hinduism’s manifestations in a classical era.
Finally, it shapes its course through the belief-system’s responses to the world contemporary with the ‘penning’ of the present article.
On this conceptual journey, aspects salient to Hindu life are discussed and contextualised historically, as well as theologically. It is important to understand these criteria when exploring any aspect of Hinduism—including any lost, hidden or secret tantric doctrine.
For such an understanding, a number of important things are outlined in the sentences below.
It permits exploration into aspects of modern-tantra, authentic to the place and period of its origin.
It also allows us to acknowledge the tradition, whilst releasing any unsavoury aspects of it that may be authentically distanced.
Ancient philosophical systems make certain cosmic assumptions that we are better informed about today. The tradition may work for the reader, but not necessarily due to the mechanisms claimed by former ways of thought.
The source opens by explaining some problematical matters involved in academically studying Hinduism. It observes some of the associated difficulties pertaining to fundamental terms of the course, particularly religion, Hinduism concepts, and India.
~As a bit of a spoiler, tantra is a medieval outcropping of Hindu culture. However, who can be comfortable discussing tantrism without examining either side of it on the Hinduism timeline?
Surely, in our deterministic universe, Hindu prehistory and ancient history, as well as contemporary tantra are connected by—the intermediate—medieval tantrism.
There are five-thousand years of Indo-Aryan history to examine the early cultures of … That most significantly shaped the development of Hinduism.
The source briefly visits the indigenous culture of northern India—the Indus Valley civilization—prior to introducing Āryans’ migration from Central Asia. It was in fact the
Āryans who bequeathed Hinduism with its most sacred and authoritative of scriptures—the Veda.
The source explored the zeitgeist the Veda emerged from; it turns out that many English words are etymologically rooted therein.
The English word ‘ignite’ is related to the Vedic fire-god, Agni, so see what you make of this link ….
As an aside, Agni’s colour, familiar beast, and associated body part are all reminiscent of Western contemporary astrological-classical fire-sign-Aries-Ares, god-of-war.
For any secret tantric techniques and teachings, we return to our source, from which we hope to glean tantalising evidence. The discussion moved from the Vedic period to the era of classical Hinduism. In the classical period, the belief system generated much of its basic practices and ideology … This will be a recurring observation of ours that the former often precedes the later.
Notions of ‘transmigration of the soul’ and ‘karma’ are thereby included. As a website very much interested in philosophy, terminology and the assumptions that underpinned terminology are intended for questioning.
Semantics are significant in our web site
The present article merely introduces the source as it pertains to our quest for secret tantric insight and practical knowledge. However, it is our intent to later give type to our thoughts on the aforementioned quoted phrases.
Returning to the source: it discusses major societal arrangements that were established within Hindu culture in its classical era’s duration. Such are the caste system, as well as life-patterns variation for:
Women, and
Men.
As our previous publication would have it, the following sentence’s terms are used in place of:
Woman, and
Man, respectively.
Sapient sapient adult, SSA, and
Sapient sapient in utero sex-changed adult—SSIUSCA—or in utero sex-changed sapient sapient adult, IUSCSSA, respectively.
No: it is not an internal-joke, but the result of a philosophical contemplation, again pertaining to terminology and logical consistency.
Both gender patterns and the aforementioned caste-system social stratifications greatly affect the nature of all Hindu’s ‘spiritual’ life, or psyche.
Yes, that is correct, the reader’s patience can now start to pay off!
For readers wondering what all of this has to do with secret tantric sectarianism, they may now be getting a better idea.
We not only import the fruits of Asian culture but also its stem, thorns, soil, and accompanying weeds. Western yoga lovers may perhaps consider gender and caste-system to be embarrassing parasitic elements, the aforementioned weeds, as it were.
One may ask the following question, however.
Who are we to deem tantra and yoga as being fruit, and the caste-system and gender-divide as being societal evils?
To answer correctly, the response is not as simple as saying:
‘Because modern western-European cultural-values preclude this sort of thing’.
The egalitarian west is undergoing a radical transformation into a different sort of society. This may preclude it from ever again being able to impose its will so forcefully on a now—nuclear armed—east.
What the historian can say—unshackled from political correctness—is that Britain was once a place whose society sufficiently-developed over several generations. The nature of the aforementioned ‘sufficiency’ was British society’s ability to do what is described in the next sentence.
That is for one nation to—scientifically, technologically, and thus militarily, politically, and ultimately culturally—impose its will upon another nation.
Even if we are sampling curry, we are often sampling it from a spoon.
We can deem tantra and yoga as being fruit.
We can also deem the caste-system and gender-divide as being societal-evils—to answer the previous question—inasmuch as pre-colonial British mores permit.
This argument bears deep consideration, and we invite your comments below. Our internal debate can determine what we take from medieval tantra, what we leave behind, and why.
To clarify the thought, The United Kingdom of Great Britain colonised and absorbed the Indian subcontinent into her own empire. Perhaps then, whatever capacity pre-colonial-British society had to achieve such a feat proves her containment-and-transmission-fitness for and of Hindu tradition.
Secret tantric teaching, or tantrism in general, and yoga are outcroppings of Hindu wisdom traditions. On that note, the western philosophy has ethics and politics—as but two of its own—branches we herein consider—towards contextualisation completion.
This is not a straightforward line of thought, but we think it manifests as outlined in the following sentence. Traditional Hindu tantra was geared towards enlightenment and ‘spiritual’ bliss—rather reminiscent of the aims of christianity, pre-colonial Britain’s practiced religion.
Conversely, our modern western culture has not yet proven itself to be fit—Darwinianlly—or sufficiently qualified to modify five-millenia-old Hindu culture.
A modern and common-place conception seems to be that: Hindu tantra is about present corporeal-stimulation, rather than reincarnating ‘spiritual’ bliss. This is why the sexual restraint of Western culture in by-gone-days, seems—somewhat strangely, counter-intuitively—to parallel classical Hindu tantrism’s afterlife considerations.
Returning to consideration of our source: it explores Hinduism’s diverse philosophical and religious components, which includes the way of action. This is a discipline—that is ‘spiritual’ or involves the nervous psyche—practiced or pursued by the overwhelming majority of Hindu people.
Our use of the term ‘nervous psyche’ is to anchor the argument for materialist reductionalism, rather than a ‘transcendent’ spirituality.
It is our intent that publications on our website justify this distinction in detail—although our reasoning was an audiobook borrowing.
To continue our relation and commentary on secret tantric tradition, follow this link to the next article. For a link to a trusted tantra teacher and practitioner, kindly follow this link.