Tantric traditions are based on a class of South Asian
ritual and meditation manuals known as tantras.
The
basic idea of all tantric traditions, whether they are Buddhist, Hindu, or
Jain, is to use ordinary states of mind, specifically states of desire, in the
process of becoming awakened. In most
Buddhist and Hindu traditions, and in both major Jain monastic traditions, the
renunciation of the ordinary life of desire is considered a prerequisite for
committing oneself to the path of awakening or liberation. However, the tantric traditions seek to use
desire on the path of awakening rather than renounce it altogether.
This does not mean that the tantric traditions encourage
self-indulgence. Rather, what they
really do, at least in theory, is to encourage people to transcend base desires
using the wisdom at the heart of every one of them. The wisdom of the Buddha and the
Buddha-Nature, or in the tantric Hindu context, of Shiva-Shakti and one’s true
identity as Shiva-Shakti, exist in all situations, including those involving
sensual desire, and can be realized in all situations, including those
involving sensual desire. It is this
insight that the tantric traditions seek to utilize in the pursuit of wisdom
through desire.
Other major practices of the tantric traditions include
secret rituals and initiation ceremonies, complete dedication to one’s guru as
equivalent or identical to a deity or a buddha (depending on the tradition,
though Tibetan Buddhism includes both), elaborate visualization practices (of
deities and other important beings), the use of mandalas (or maps of the cosmos) and yantras ( or geometric designs representing deities and concepts), the
use of mudras (or stylized hand
gestures – though this word also refers to “parched grain,” one of the five
taboo substances discussed below), and the use of mantras (best translated as “sacred phrases”).
Ritualized sex is part of the tantric traditions of Buddhism
and Hinduism, at least in theory (and often in practice as well), but it is not
the central practice of any form of
tantrism, whether Buddhist or Hindu (and it is absent in Jainism, the tantric
tradition of which is of the extreme “right hand” variety). However, sexual intercourse is one of the five
things that were traditionally taboo for monks and mendicants to do in South
Asian society, along with consuming alcohol, eating meat, eating fish, and
eating parched grain, all of which tantric practitioners did and still do
either literally or symbolically. These
five taboos are known as Panchamakara,
or the “Five M’s” – because they all begin with that letter in Sanskrit. Antinomian behavior, which consists of
engaging in the “Five M’s” as well as other taboo activities, is part of many
tantric traditions. It is very prominent
in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as in the Kapalika and non-tantric
Pashupata traditions of Shaivism and the tantric Kalikula traditions of
Shaktism, all of which can safely be categorized as “left-hand” forms of
tantrism (with the Pashupata simply being a form of “left-hand”
cremation-ground asceticism rather than left-hand tantrism).
However, other tantric traditions, such as the Geluk sect of
Tibetan Buddhism headed by the Dalai Lama, the popular Shaiva Siddhanta
tradition of Southern India, the householder tradition of monistic Shaivism
that is usually known as “Kashmir Shaivism” (and which is based on Kapalika or
“Cremation-Ground” Shaivism, but no longer incorporates that element of the
Shaiva tradition in practice), and the Srikula traditions of Shaktism,
discourage antinomian behavior almost entirely (or even altogether), allowing
it only for the most advanced practitioners, and even then only on rare
occasions. These “right hand” tantric
traditions interpret the “Five M’s” symbolically, and often go out of their way
to discourage antinomianism among their practitioners, especially their
monastics and priests.
