Greetings Portal Devotees !
What is Tantra ? ... No, really ?
=P
Initially I wanted to research the spirituality behind sexual intercourse and so naively thought, Tantra would be something to look into. Well, now, I'm not so sure... I don't know entirely what it is and have more to read from the interview below. Not sure what will come of this but I know the portal doesn't discriminate against any one path so, if anything, here is a nice read.
Open For Discussion
"WHAT IS TANTRA?!"
RIDING THE WISDOM TIGER
Introduction:
From the beginning of time there have been those rare women and men
who, following their hearts great yearning, have answered the
existential question of birth and death with realization of who they
truly are - who we all are. Pranama is such a one. He invites,
cajoles, dares us to join the dance. Read his words, let them enter
your heart and smash the taboo against unreasonable happiness. The
flame of being is passed from master to disciple in the great silence
of the heart - these words are an engraved invitation.
...There is a beautiful
Rumi poem which speaks to this from the Sufi tradition.
"Love is reckless; not reason. Reason seeks a profit. Love comes on
strong, consuming herself unabashed.
Yet in the midst of suffering love proceeds like a millstone, hard
surfaced and straight forward.
Having died to self interest, she risks everything and asks for
nothing. Love gambles away every gift God bestows.
Without cause God gave us Being; without cause give it back again.
Gambling yourself away is beyond any religion.
Religion seeks grace and favor, but those who gamble these away are
Gods favorites, for they neither put God to the test nor knock at the
door of gain and loss"
(translation by Edmund Helminski)
Tantra takes the jump into crazy wisdom by eliminating even God from
the equation, leaving only the mystery with no ultimate attempt to
define it. This is a path for those whose hearts are so wild that they
are ready to throw it all away on a hunch, for an intuition.
Discipline, courage, hard work and intelligence are required
because that is what any quest of the heart demands. Tantra, which
molds the power of creation and ego into skillful means cutting
through delusion, requires careful preparation. We don't expect
someone who just wants to play around now and then on a keyboard to
become a concert pianist. We don't expect someone to be able to get up
off the couch one day and run a four minute mile. Great tasks require
great effort.
With Tantra we are taking the mind and body as cauldron, feeling,
ego, elements and world as alchemical ingredients, and imagination
informed by divine power as catalyst; and we are accomplishing the
great magical task of alchemical transformation. The base metal of
dualistic view becomes the infinitely valuable gold of pure and
luminous awareness. Tantra is a path of tremendous power. This power
is not easy to use without getting burned by it. Yet, at the same
time, it is a path of great joy.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/tantra.htm