Philosophy

"Tantra is a very very poetic approach, not arithmetical. And tantra believes in love, not in mathematics. It believes in sudden enlightenment."

"The mysticism of Islam is known as Sufism. "Sufis believe that the world can never remain without a qutb upon whom depends the preservation of the faith and the guidance of human beings. He is nearest to God , the guardian of the faith and receives instructions from Allah directly.""

"The ordinary society is like a paperweight on you: it won't allow you to fly."

"This is one of the most beautiful tantra things:tantra says remain homeless, don’t abide anywhere. Don’t get identified and don’t cling to anything. Remain homeless, because in homelessness you will attain to your real home."

"...difference between yoga and tantra; yoga is horizontal, tantra is vertical; yoga takes millions of lives to reach; tantra says: within a second."

"He who keeps tantric precepts, yet discriminates, betrays the spirit of samaya. [And says Tilopa], if you are trying to keep the tantra path, the tantra precepts, then remember, don’t discriminate. If you discriminate you may be tantra philosopher, but not a tantra follower. Don’t say this is good, that is bad. Drop all discrimination. Accept everything as it is."

"Yoga is effort, tantra is effortless."

"...the Sanskrit word tantra has appeared since Vedic times, with an enormous diversity of meanings; it has been used to denote everything from a warp or a loom to “the chief potion or essence of a thing” (Mahabharta.13.48.6). Probably derived from the root tan, “to weave or stretch”, tantra is most often used to refer to a particular kind of text which is “woven” of the extended threads of many words. Yet, as Padoux points out, such texts may or may not contain materials that we today think of as “Tantric”."

"Tantra masters are wild flowers, they have everything in them."

"Tantra accepts everything, lives everything. That's why tantra never could become a very accepted ideology. It always remained a fringe ideology."

"That is why in tantra – Tilopa is a tantra master – deep intercourse, orgasmic intercourse, between lovers is also called Mahamudra, and two lovers in deep orgasmic state are pictured in tantric temples, in tantric books. That has become a symbol of the final orgasm."

"Some debauch themselves for wealth, some for lust, I debauched myself in search of God."

"Kali-Ma...symbolizes the ultimate mystery in life- the mystery of sex."

"That Mai Kali will get the blood for which She asks unless quick action betaken...this is certain. Who governs India as a whole must govern by power."

"Yantras can be two-or three dimensional. Two dimensional yantras are designs on paper, textiles and other materials. They are dimensional yantras raised structures usually made of metal. The well known sri yantra or sri chakra are classified differently, depending on the author’s use of terminology."

"The moment one hears the word “Tantrism”, various wild and lurid associations spring forth in the Western mind which add up to a pastiche of psycho spiritual science fiction and sexual acrobatics that would put to shame the most imaginative of our contemporary pronographers."

"Tantra is a great yea-sayer; it says yes to everything."

"A Sufi is he, who not only wears coarse woolen garment, but, at the same time has a heart which is pure and filled with the love of God."

"*Tantra is scientific discovery not revelation."

"There is nothing fowl in them except for people to whom all erotic phenomenon are foul....The ancient East was pure in these matters than the modern West, where under cover of a pruriently modest exterior ...extraordinary varied psychopathic filth may flow. This was not so in earlier days...when a spade was called a spade and not a horticultural instrument."

"Vedanta in its various forms has for centuries constituted the religious notions of India, and the Agamas...are its practical expression in worship in p. 140"

"So, as the Council of Trent declared, the Catholic Church, rich with the experiences of ages and clothed with their splendor, has introduced mystic benediction (mantra), incense (dhupa), water (achamana), lights (dipa), bells (ghanta), flowers (w:Pushpanjalipushpa),vestments and all the magnificence of ceremonies in order to excite the spirit of religion to the contemplation of the profound mysteries which they reveal. As are its faithful, the Church is composed of both body (deha) and soul (atma). It renders to the Lord (ishvara) a double worship, external (bahyapuja) and interior (manaspuja), the latter being the prayer (vandana) of the faithful."

"See some Lama and understand from him what your beliefs are. It is so extraordinary to us Europeans that you Buddhists and Hindus and every one of you do not understand your own religions....I speak particularly of the Tantric doctrines."

"The Vedanta is the final authority and basis for the doctrines set forth in the Tantras....the Tantra shastras has been for centuries past one of the recognized scriptures of Hinduism, and every form of Hinduism is based on Veda and Vedanta."

"What India wanted at present was the Religion of Power"

"The Sakta Tantra simply present the Vedanthic teachings in a symbolic form for the worshipper, to whom it prescribes the means whereby they may be realized in fact."

"According to Tantra, struggle is the essence of life. The effort to struggle against all obstacles and move from the imperfect to the perfect is the true spirit of Tantra."

"I protest I have always protested against unjust aspersions upon the civilization of India.... The Tantra Sastra is not, as some seems to suppose, a petty Sastra of no account....It is on the contrary, with Veda, Smriti and Purana, one of the foremost important Sastras of India, governing in various degrees....the temple and household ritual of the whole of India… for centuries past."

"The last of the Ms, Maethuna, is the one which has caused the most confusion regarding Tantra. Maethuna means union. In its crude sense it means sexual union. For those who were dominated by the sexual instinct for the more advanced practitioners, those who were practicing subtle or spiritual Tantra, Shiva taught another practice of Maethuna. In this case "union" refers to the union of individual consciousness with Supreme Consciousness. In this case the spiritual energy of the human being, lying dormant at the base of the spine, is raised until it reaches the highest energy center (near the pineal gland), causing the spiritual aspirant to experience union with the Supreme."

"This form of practice must never even be mentioned in the Math. Ruin shall seize the wicked man, both here and hereafter, who would introduce vile |w:Vamachara|Vamachan]] into his fold."

"Matsya, the third of the Ms, refers to fish. For the physically minded practitioner Shiva applied the same instruction regarding fish as he did with wine and meat. In spiritual or subtle Tantra the "fish" refers to two subtle nerves which run up the body, starting at the base of the spine and crisscrossing each other and ending in the two nostrils. These nerves are known as the w:Nadi (yoga)ida and pingala. By the science of breath control, Pranayama, the currents of the nerves are controlled and the mind becomes calm for meditation. This is the Matsya of the spiritual practitioner."

"Tantrikism in its real sense is nothing but the Vedic religion struggling with wonderful success to reassert itself amidst all those new problems of religious life…which historical events have thrust upon it."

"The follower of Tantric art professes no austerities. He seeks to kill desire by an unlimited indulgence which brings satiety and extinction of emotion. The indulgence is enjoined by his so called religion; and his depravity is commended as a great virtue."

"Another of the Ms is Mudra. Mudra has only a spiritual significance and there is no physical or crude practice associated with it."

"Tantra is the original spiritual science first taught in India. 'Tan' is a Sanskrit root which signifies "expansion", and 'Tra' signifies "liberation." Thus, Tantra is the practice which elevates human beings in a process in which their minds are expanded. It leads human beings from the imperfect to the perfect, from the crude to the subtle, from bondage to liberation."

"Tantra is more than just a collection of meditation or yoga techniques. There is a particular world-view associated with it. According to Tantra, struggle is the essence of life. The effort to struggle against all obstacles and move from the imperfect to the perfect is the true spirit of Tantra."

"The Purânas, the Tantras, and all the other books, even the Vyasa-Sutras, are of secondary, tertiary authority, but primary are the Vedas. Manu, and the Puranas, and all the other books are to be taken so far as they agree with the authority of the Upanishads, and when they disagree they are to be rejected without mercy."

"Today Tantra is shrouded in mystery and there are many misconceptions about it. To understand the source of these misconceptions it is important to examine the "5 Ms"."

"The first M is known as Madya. It has two meanings. One meaning of madya is "wine" For those at a higher level of development Madya has another meaning, it refers not to wine but to a divine nectar."

"In our ordinary lives we are mostly Paurânikas or Tântrikas, and, even where some Vedic texts are used by the Brahmins of India, the adjustment of the texts is mostly not according to the Vedas, but according to the Tantras or the Puranas. As such, to call ourselves Vaidikas in the sense of following the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, I do not think, would be proper. But the other fact stands that we are all of us Vedantists. The people who call themselves Hindus had better be called Vedantists, and, as I have shown you, under that one name Vaidantika come in all our various sects, whether dualists or non-dualists."

"Another of the five Ms is Mamsa. One meaning of Mamsa is meat. For those who ate much meat. For the subtle practitioner of Tantra, mamsa refers to the tongue and the spiritual practice of controlling one's speech."

"Flee even now-don’t you know that the tantrika’s worship consists of human flesh"

"I, who am adorned with a garland of human bones , who live in the cremation ground and who eat out of human skull, with an eye purified by the instrument of Yoga, see the world having differences within itself but being non-different from God..."

"We who offer oblations in the fire in the form of human flesh, brains, entrails and marrow break our fast with alcohol kept in the skull of a Brahmana. Mahabhairava has to be worshipped with human offerings, lustrous with streams of blood flowing from the stiff throat which is freshly cut."

"Tantra-sastra is a distinct tradition in ancient Indian culture. Scholars hold that its origin goes back to prehistoric times. Its ancient form can be found in the Atarva Veda and Yajur Veda. There are statements in Vedic literature like “the letter a is all speech” (Aitareya Aranyaka 2,3,6) and “A is brahman”...which remind one of the concept of matrka, which came to be expanded in the tantra of the Saivas, Saktas, and Buddhists."

"Give up this filthy Vâmâchâra that is killing your country. You have not seen the other parts of India. When I see how much the Vamachara has entered our society, I find it a most disgraceful place with all its boast of culture. These Vamachara sects are honeycombing our society in Bengal. Those who come out in the daytime and preach most loudly about Âchâra, it is they who carry on the horrible debauchery at night and are backed by the most dreadful books. They are ordered by the books to do these things. You who are of Bengal know it. The Bengali Shastras are the Vamachara Tantras. They are published by the cart-load, and you poison the minds of your children with them instead of teaching them your Shrutis. Fathers of Calcutta, do you not feel ashamed that such horrible stuff as these Vamachara Tantras, with translations too, should be put into the hands of your boys and girls, and their minds poisoned, and that they should be brought up with the idea that these are the Shastras of the Hindus? If you are ashamed, take them away from your children, and let them read the true Shastras, the Vedas, the Gita, the Upanishads."

"The basic tenet of tantra is that all of life is food for spiritual development, from the most mundane tasks of everyday living to the deepest meditation. Tantra teaches to embrace life, to try to strive to see the creator in everything within and around us. The practices including concentration, meditation, yoga postures, relaxation, visualization, nourishing food, community involvement, service, and right conduct, are all designed to help us experience body, mid, spirit, joy, peace, suffering, and pain as changing aspects of one invisible Being."

"While sexuality is part of Tantra because it is part of life, it is not the core of tantric philosophy or practice"

"Tantra is the oldest Eastern tradition of spiritual philosophy and practice...From its origin to the present day, it is revolutionary approach to human evolution."

"Real tantric sex blows your mind completely because it takes you beyond all our conceptions of everyday reality...Understanding that our bodies are temples for expressing divinity we can…expand, celebrate, and share relationship engorgement in every cell of our being … blending sex and spirit."