Most humans operate at the level of body consciousness: our sense of pleasure and pain and our experience of success and failure correspond to our bodies and to the world around us. So all the tantric practices requiring the involvement of our bodies, senses, and material objects were organized into one group called kaula—literally, “that which is related to kula (the family).” This is the path of householders. Practices accompanied by rituals, the recitation of scripture, pilgrimage to holy shrines, and fire offerings belong to the kaula path. The goal of tantric practices at this level is to
...more
