tantra origins

This is the start of a new series of talks in which we’ll be looking at tantra. Now tantra is a word that’s been used in slightly different ways, and in further episodes we’ll be looking at some of these slightly different meanings of tantra. But today, I want to look at the origins of tantra as I understand them.

In the yogic traditions in India, and also later on in some streams of Buddhism, tantra came into being, and in these original forms, tantra was reserved for monks who had already been studying – meditating for perhaps twenty years. These monks would have been living under a very strict code of conduct. They would have had a very simple aesthetic life, certainly with no sex, and with all sorts of other restrictions on their behaviour. And through these restrictions, their meditation could go deeper and deeper with all their energy focused inwards. And after many years of living and meditating in this way, the monks would have attained a very high level of consciousness, and through such discipline, a certain peacefulness can be attained.

But what the tantric traditions realised is that there is still something not quite right in the system when our energy and desire for excitement has been suppressed in this way. The peace of the monks has been brought about by the imposition of this code of conduct; by discipline. And discipline is a subtle violence against the self, a decision to force oneself in a certain direction.

So what did tantra do about this? It’s very simple. When the time was right, when a monk had gained everything that could be gained from austere meditation practices, tantra changed the rules. The tantric rituals broke all the vows that the monks had lived by. They would drink alcohol in these rituals, they would eat meat in these rituals, and they would have sex. And what was the purpose of this? Was it a little prize at the end of the journey? No, that’s not the point at all.

The point is that tantric rituals were a shock. A monk had been living for perhaps two decades in a certain way, and suddenly everything has changed. It’s a shock to the mind, and that tantric shock would break down the dependence on discipline. Only by shattering that rigid frame of the code of conduct that the monks lived by, only by breaking it open, could the monk attain a higher level of liberation. It’s like a chick breaking out of the egg shell. That shell has been serving a purpose: it’s been allowing the chick to grow until it is strong enough. But in the end, that eggshell becomes a cage, and only by breaking out of such cages are we truly free. And this was the purpose of tantra. When the time was right – when a monk had attained to the right level of growth – tantra would shatter that shell, that protective nursery of the monastic rules. And suddenly, by this means, there is space, and the monk was free.

So this is my understanding of the origins of tantra. In further episodes, we’ll look more at modern streams of tantra: what this word has come to mean now, and what tantra in the modern world has to offer as a spiritual path.