Tantra Unveiled: Seducing the Forces of Matter and Spirit

by Rajmani Tigunait

THE FIRST INITIATION: MANTRA We saw in chapter 3 that tantric practice begins with kaula tantra, and kaula tantra, in turn, begins with doing mantra japa in a right-hand (or purely meditative) manner. Then, after a student has practiced this standard form of mantra meditation for a while, he or she is initiated into the tantric method which includes many additional elements. In the tantric tradition the mantra is not simply an object for focusing the mind: the mantra is the illuminator of the mind. It is the body of the Divine Force in the form of sound. It is the living Divinity, and in the first level of practice the mind, body, and senses are employed to serve it. Constant repetition of mantra charges our being with divine consciousness, eventually transforming our egocentric awareness into divine awareness. And when at the culmination of our sadhana we become one with the power of the mantra, the gap between individual and universal consciousness is filled. We are no longer a drop in the ocean; we become the ocean. In the tantric tradition the anthropomorphic (personified) form of the Divine is secondary to the mantric form. In fact the anthropomorphic form is merely a means of apprehending the mantric form. Tantric philosophy asserts that there is only one primordial life-force, known as Sri Vidya or Sri Mata (the Divine Mother). Just as the sun emits numberless rays, so do an infinite number of mantras emerge from the Divine Mother, and through systematic practice of...