Tantric sexual practices
Jambhala (Kubera) deity in Tibet (18th?19th century)
Tantric sex
or
sexual yoga
refers to a range of practices in
Hindu
and
Buddhist tantra
that utilize
sexuality
in a
ritual
or
yogic
context. Tantric sex is associated with
antinomian
elements such as the consumption of alcohol, and the offerings of substances like meat to
deities
. Moreover, sexual fluids may be viewed as power substances and used for ritual purposes, either externally or internally.
The actual terms used in the classical texts to refer to this practice include "
Karmamudra
" (
Tibetan
: ??????????????
las kyi phyag rgya
, "action seal") in Buddhist tantras and "
Maithuna
" (
Devanagari
: ?????, "coupling") in Hindu sources. In Hindu Tantra, Maithuna is the most important of
the five makara
(five tantric substances) and constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of
Tantra
variously known as
Panchamakara
,
Panchatattva
, and Tattva Chakra. In
Tibetan Buddhism
, karmamudra is often an important part of the
completion stage of tantric practice
.
While there may be some connection between these practices and the
K?mash?stra
literature (which include the
K?mas?tra
), the two practice traditions are separate methods with separate goals. As the British Indologist
Geoffrey Samuel
notes, while the k?mas?stra literature is about the pursuit of sexual pleasure (
k?m?
), sexual yoga practices are often aimed towards the quest for liberation (
moksha
).
History
[
edit
]
Maithuna
, Lakshmana Temple, Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India.
In its earliest forms, Tantric intercourse was usually directed to generate sexual fluids that constituted the "preferred offering of the Tantric deities."
[5]
While there is already a mention of ascetics practicing it in the 4th century CE
Mahabharata
, those techniques were rare until late Buddhist Tantra. Up to that point, sexual emission was both allowed and emphasized.
Around the start of the first millennium, Tantra began to include practices of semen retention, like the
penance ceremony
of
asidharavrata
and the posterior
yogic
technique of
vajroli mudra
. They were probably adopted from ancient, non-Tantric celibate schools, like those mentioned in
Mahabharata
.
The
Brhadaranyaka Upanisad
contains various sexual rituals and practices which are mostly aimed at obtaining a child which are concerned with the loss of male virility and power.
One passage from the
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad
states:
Her vulva is the sacrificial ground; her pubic hair is the sacred grass; her labia majora are the Soma-press; and her labia minora are the fire blazing at the centre. A man who engages in sexual intercourse with this knowledge obtains as great a world as a man who performs a Soma sacrifice, and he appropriates to himself the merits of the women with whom he has sex. The women, on the other hand, appropriate to themselves the merits of a man who engages in sexual intercourse with them without this knowledge. (
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad
6.4.3, trans. Olivelle 1998: 88)
Vajradhara in union with consort
According to Samuel, late Vedic texts like the
Jaiminiya Brahmana
, the
Chandogya Upanisad
, and the
Brhadaranyaka Upanisad
,
"treat sexual intercourse as symbolically equivalent to the
Vedic sacrifice
, and ejaculation of semen as the offering."
However, he also writes that while it is possible that some kind of sexual yoga existed in the fourth or fifth centuries, "Substantial evidence for such practices, however, dates from considerably later, from the seventh and eighth centuries, and derives from Saiva and Buddhist Tantric circles."
Tantric sexual practices are often seen as exceptional and elite, and not accepted by all sects. They are found only in some tantric literature belonging to Buddhist and Hindu Tantra, but are entirely absent from Jain Tantra.
In the
Kaula
tradition and others where sexual fluids as power substances and ritual sex are mentioned, scholars disagree in their translations, interpretations and practical significance.
Emotions, eroticism and sex are universally regarded in Tantric literature as natural, desirable, a means of transformation of the deity within.
Pleasure
and sex is another aspect of life and a "root of the universe", whose purpose extends beyond procreation and is another means to spiritual journey and fulfillment.
This idea flowers with the inclusion of kama art in Hindu temple arts, and its various temple architecture and design manuals such as the
Shilpa-prakasha
by the Hindu scholar Ramachandra Kulacara.
Practice
[
edit
]
In Hinduism
[
edit
]
Buddhist Mahasiddhas practicing tantric yoga
The actual term used in Hindu classical texts to refer to this practice is
maithuna
(
Devanagari
: ?????, "coupling"). In the
Hindu Tantras
,
maithuna
is always presented in the context of
panchamakara
(the five
makara
or tantric substances) which constitutes primary ritual of Tantra. These may also be referred to as "the five Ms",
panchatattva
or the
tattva chakra
, which consist of
madya
(
alcohol
),
m??sa
(
meat
),
matsya
(
fish
),
mudr?
(pound grain), and
maithuna
(
sexual intercourse
).
Taboo
-breaking elements are only practiced literally by "left-hand path" tantrics (
v?m?c?rin
s), whereas "right-hand path" tantrics (
dak?i??c?rin
s) use symbolic substitutes.
[14]
Jayanta Bhatta
, the 9th-century scholar of the
Nyaya
school of
Hindu philosophy
and who commented on Tantra literature, stated that the Tantric ideas and spiritual practices are mostly well placed, but it also has "immoral teachings" such as by the so-called "Nilambara" sect where its practitioners "wear simply one blue garment, and then as a group engage in unconstrained public sex" on festivals. He wrote, this practice is unnecessary and it threatens fundamental values of society.
Ascetics of the
Shaivite
school of
Mantramarga
, in order to gain supernatural power, reenacted the penance of
Shiva
after cutting off one of
Brahma
's heads (
Bhikshatana
). They worshipped Shiva with impure substances like alcohol, blood and sexual fluids generated in orgiastic rites with their consorts.
Douglas Renfrew Brooks states that the antinomian elements such as the use of intoxicating substances and sex were not
animistic
, but were adopted in some Kaula traditions to challenge the Tantric devotee to break down the "distinctions between the ultimate reality of Brahman and the mundane physical and mundane world". By combining erotic and ascetic techniques, states Brooks, the Tantric broke down all social and internal assumptions, became Shiva-like.
In Kashmir Shaivism, states David Gray, the antinomian transgressive ideas were internalized, for meditation and reflection, and as a means to "realize a transcendent subjectivity".
As part of tantric inversion of social regulations, sexual yoga often recommends the usage of consorts from the most taboo groups available, such as close relatives or people from the lowest, most contaminated
castes
. They must be young and beautiful, as well as initiates in tantra.
In Buddhism
[
edit
]
According to English, Buddhist sexual rites were incorporated from Shaiva tantra.
One of the earliest mentions of sexual yoga is in the
Mahayana
Buddhist
Mah?y?nas?tr?lamk?ra
of
Asanga
(c. 5th century). The passage states:
Supreme self-control is achieved in the reversal of sexual intercourse in the blissful Buddha-poise and the untrammelled vision of one's spouse.
According to
David Snellgrove
, the text's mention of a ‘reversal of sexual intercourse’ might indicate the practice of withholding ejaculation. Snellgrove states:
It is by no means improbable that already by the fifth century when Asanga was writing, these techniques of sexual yoga were being used in reputable Buddhist circles, and that Asanga himself accepted such a practice as valid. The natural power of the breath, inhaling and exhaling, was certainly accepted as an essential force to be controlled in Buddhist as well as Hindu yoga. Why therefore not the natural power of the sexual force? [...] Once it is established that sexual yoga was already regarded by Asanga as an acceptable yogic practice, it becomes far easier to understand how Tantric treatises, despite their apparent contradiction of previous Buddhist teachings, were so readily canonized in the following centuries.
Deities like
Vajrayogini
, sexually suggestive and streaming with blood, overturn traditional separation between intercourse and menstruation.
Some extreme texts would go further, such as the 9th-century Buddhist text
Candamaharosana-tantra
, which advocated consumption of bodily waste products of the practitioner's sexual partner, like wash-water of her
anus
and
genitalia
. Those were thought to be "power substances", teaching the waste should be consumed as a diet "eaten by all the Buddhas."
In some forms of Buddhism, tantric sex is strongly associated with the practice of
semen retention
, as sexual fluids are considered an energetic substance that must be reserved. Many Buddhist tantric works direct the focus away from sexual emission towards retention and intentionally prolonged bliss, thus "interiorizing" the tantric offering of fluids directed to the deities.
[5]
Japanese Buddhism
[
edit
]
12th-century Japanese school
Tachikawa-ryu
did not discourage ejaculation in itself, considering it a "shower of love that contained thousands of potential Buddhas".
[22]
They employed emission of sexual fluids in combination with worshipping of human skulls, which would be coated in the resultant mix in order to create
honzon
.
[22]
However, those practices were considered heretical, leading to the sect's suppression.
[22]
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Tibetan Buddhism
[
edit
]
In Tibetan Buddhism, the higher tantric
yogas
are generally preceded by preliminary practices (
Tib
.
ngondro
), which include
sutrayana
practices (i.e. non-tantric Mahayana practices) as well as preliminary tantric meditations. Tantric initiation is required to enter into the practice of tantra.
Tibetan tantric practice refers to the main
tantric
practices in
Tibetan Buddhism
. The great
Rime
scholar
Jamgon Kongtrul
refers to this as "the Process of Meditation in the Indestructible Way of Secret Mantra" and also as "the way of mantra," "way of method" and "the secret way" in his
Treasury of Knowledge
.
These
Vajray?na
Buddhist practices are mainly drawn from the
Buddhist tantras
and are generally not found in "common" (i.e. non-tantric)
Mahayana
. These practices are seen by Tibetan Buddhists as the fastest and most powerful path to
Buddhahood
.
Unsurpassable Yoga Tantra
, (
Skt.
anuttarayogatantra
, also known as
Mahayoga
) are in turn seen as the highest tantric practices in Tibetan Buddhism. Anuttarayoga tantric practice is divided into two stages, the
generation stage
and the
completion stage.
In the generation stage, one meditates on emptiness and visualizes one's chosen deity (
yidam
), its
mandala
and companion deities, resulting in identification with this divine reality (called "divine pride").
This is also known as
deity yoga
(
devata yoga
).
In the completion stage, the focus is shifted from the form of the deity to direct realization of ultimate reality (which is defined and explained in various ways). Completion stage practices also include techniques that work with the
subtle body
substances (Skt.
bindu
, Tib.
thigle
) and "vital winds" (
vayu, lung
), as well as
the luminous or clear light nature of the mind.
They are often grouped into different systems, such as the
six dharmas of Naropa
, or the six yogas of
Kalachakra
.
Karmamudr? refers to the female
yogini
who engages in such a practice and the technique which makes use of
sexual union
with a physical or visualized consort as well as the practice of inner heat (
tummo
) to achieve a
non-dual
state of bliss and insight into
emptiness
.
[27]
In
Tibetan Buddhism
, proficiency in tummo yoga, a completion stage practice, is generally seen as a prerequisite to the practice of karmamudr?.
[28]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
Works cited
[
edit
]
- Baier, Karl; Maas, Philipp Andre; Preisendanz, Karin (2018).
Yoga in Transformation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
. V&R Unipress.
ISBN
978-3-73700-862-4
.
- Brooks, Douglas Renfrew (1990).
The Secret of the Three Cities: An Introduction to Hindu Sakta Tantrism
. University of Chicago Press.
ISBN
978-0-226-07569-3
.
- English, Elizabeth (2013).
Vajrayogini: Her Visualization, Rituals, and Forms
. Simon and Schuster.
ISBN
978-0-861-71657-9
.
- Flood, Gavin D.
(1996).
An Introduction to Hinduism
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-0-521-43878-0
.
- Flood, Gavin D.
(2006).
The Tantric Body, The Secret Tradition of Hindu Religion
. I.B Taurus.
ISBN
978-1-84511-011-6
.
- Garson, Nathaniel DeWitt (2004).
Penetrating the Secret Essence Tantra: Context and Philosophy in the Mahayoga System of rNying-ma Tantra
.
[
full citation needed
]
- Gray, David B. (2016). "Tantra and the Tantric Traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism".
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion
. Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.59
.
ISBN
9780199340378
.
- Jamgon Kongtrul
(2005).
The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Four Systems of Buddhist Tantra
. Translated by Elio Guarisco and Ingrid McLeod. Snow Lion Publications.
- Jamgon Kongtrul (2008).
The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Eight, Part Three: The Elements of Tantric Practice
. Translated by Elio Guarisco and Ingrid McLeod. Shambhala Publications.
- Kragh, Ulrich Timme (2015).
Tibetan Yoga and Mysticism A Textual Study of the Yogas of Naropa and Mahamudra Meditation in the Medieval Tradition of Dags po
. Studia Philologica Buddhica. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies.
ISBN
978-4-906267-72-9
.
- Larson, Gerald
(2008). "Reviewed Work: Kiss of the Yogin?: "Tantric Sex" in Its South Asian Contexts by David Gordon White".
Journal of the American Oriental Society
.
128
(1 (January - March 2008)): 154?157.
JSTOR
25608318
.
- Payne, Richard K. (2006).
Tantric Buddhism in East Asia
. Simon and Schuster.
ISBN
978-0-86171-487-2
.
- Powers, J. (2007).
Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism
(Rev ed.). Ithaca: Shambhala.
ISBN
978-1559392822
.
- Rawson, Philip (1978).
The Art of Tantra
. Thames & Hudson.
- Samuel, Geoffrey
(2010).
The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-0521695343
.
- Snellgrove, D. L. (1987).
Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and their Tibetan Successors
. Serindia.
- Stevens, John
(1990).
Lust for Enlightenment: Buddhism and Sex
. Shambala Publications.
ISBN
978-0834829343
.
- Tsong-Kha-Pa
(2005).
The Six Yogas Of Naropa, Tsongkhapa's Commentary Entitled A Book Of Three Inspirations A Treatise on the Stages Of Training in the Profound Path Of Naro's Six Dharmas
. Translated by
Glenn H. Mullin
. Snow Lion Publications.
ISBN
1-55939-234-7
.
- White, David Gordon, ed. (2000).
Tantra in Practice
. Princeton University Press.
ISBN
978-0-691-05779-8
.
Further reading
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]
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Main topics
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Traditions
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Techniques
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Leaders
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- Focused attention
- Open awareness
- Multiple methods
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Works
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Related
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