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DESIRE IN PLANETARY TANTRA
The Challenge and Standard of the Gaian Dakinis On January 26, 2009, while I was visiting the USA, I released on this site the five ritual components (tool kit) of Planetary Tantra: 1 the secret dakini name for Gaia, 2 the Kala Tantra Vow, 3 Shri Yantra, the holding pattern, 4 the Sodashi mantra, the sounding pattern, and 5, instructions on taking the Vow with the Tantric buddy-system. NOTE: This essay was written in February 2009. At that time I proposed a five-point ritual for self-initiation into Planetary Tantra. Since then, I have reduced the ritual to three points, excluding the Shri Yantra and the Shodashi mantra, relics of Hindu devotionalism. See the Gaian Tantra Vow. jll: August 2010 Those of you who loyally follow this site, as well as newcomers who may recently have come upon it, could well be wondering: What does JLL expect the world to do now? Or, perhaps more pertinently, and realistically, What is JLL himself going to do next? How is he going to proceed with showing how to put these components into practice? Cosmic Timing To be perfectly honest, I may do nothing at all. Upon reflection since releasing this material, I have come to realize that there may be no more that I can do with it. I have compared myself to a weather-caster reporting on a turbulent front and navigating in it at the same time. That's a pretty good analogy, and I can continue to report in that vein. In other words, I can amplify and clarify the material and methodology I have presented so far... But let me switch metaphors for a moment: With respect to the theory and practice of Planetary Tantra, I would compare myself to someone who has set the cornerstone for a building—a temple, if you will—run a few strings and laid out some chalk lines in the earth, preparatory to further construction. I have produced the rudiments of a foundation, that's all. And it may be all that I can do, due to limitations of time and my specific role as a first-generation (G-1) Kalika. As explained elswhere on site, the role of those born like myself between 1945 and 1975 is to announce and initialize Planetary Tantra. I calculate nine generations of 30 years each, a total of 270 years, from 1945 to 2215 which is the end of Kali Yuga and, simultaneously, the end of the great precessional cycle of 25,920 years that began around 23,700 BCE. Kali Yuga, comencing in 3012 BCE, is the last fifth of this cycle. There are various ways of computing and permuting these cycles, some of which are quite baroque. I find these figures, based on my extrapolations from the Dendera Zodiac and other ancient calendric systems, simple and reliable. In long-term chronology involving cosmic cycles, it is helpful to keep the computations minimal, lean, and simple. In reckoning patterns of cosmic timing, less computation is more instructive. The limitation of time affecting me personally is age. Having been born in 1945, the first year of the first generation of Kalikas, I now find myself well into my sixties and contemplating a project that will extend 200 years into the future. No matter how much I might accomplish in the rest of my life, my work would only represent the edge of the wedge (another metaphor), regarding full-blown revelation of Gaian Tantra. I have said that the practice will morph radically through the generations. The vision of the Shakti Cluster with its 10 / 5 / 3 format will change, the goddess icons will mutate, but the essential structure of the grand mandala will remain constant. Each generation will move deeper into interactivity and intimacy with this 18-gauge manifestation of the Divine Feminine. Today those born in 1976 or after are G-2 Kalikas. They would at most be 33 years old. I see the first transfer of this planetary practice occuring now principally between myself and those of that age group, 33 or under. The role of those between 33 and 63, like myself, would be to consolidate the initial framework of the practice, rather than to carry it into its next expression. I would also point out that the role of those born 1965 - 75, in the last decade of G-1, is especially crucial in recognizing and securing the fundamentals of Planetary Tantra for the future. To a large extent, if not totally, the transfer has to be made person to person, one on one. Thus, what I can accomplish by way of transfer—"transmission," to use the fashionable term—through the medium of writing is limited. However, I will certainly continue to post material on site relating to the theory and practice of Planetary Tantra, or Kala Tantra, as it may also be called. These writings to come will be orientation material and commentary, rather than actual transmission. Also, I will present a month-by-month course in working with the "Lunar shaktis," a way to learn interactivity with the Shakti Cluster. The first Lunar Shakti Calendar in preparation will run from September 2009 to September 2010. I will use the time until then to initialize the concept and demonstrate how it works, thus preparing those who want to use the calendar when it comes out. As for first-person transmission of Planetary Tantra, I invite anyone attracted by this prospect to contact me: jll A Planetary Terma As a self-styled terton, or treasure-finder, I consider the five ritual components of Planetary Tantra to comprise a terma, or ter, a sacred wisdom treasure. These five components are like the budding end of a plant that is to grow into the fully mature wisdom treasure. Many termas exist (thousands, in fact) in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, but none of them is planetary or global in scope and application. Termas received in the tradition attributed to Padma Sambhava and his consort Yeshe Tsogyal exhibit two kinds of content: ornate teachings about the nature of mind, or rites and spells. The latter are, to my knowledge, far more numerous. In other words, these termas either propound complex philosophical and epistemological teachings, or they propose magical acts, ritual of divination, propitiation and protection, and so forth. In both cases, this material is strictly limited to the cultural and spiritual setting in which the termas emerge. They are locally derived from Tibet, typical of the shamanism of that country and culture. They have no planetary outreach, nor do they present methods for interactivity with the planetary goddess, Gaia-Sophia, who responds to the secret dakini name, VV. At least not to my knowledge. Also, putting the instructions in these termas into practice requires deep and extensive knowledge of the vast corpus of Tibetan Buddhism in its theoretical, visionary, and ritual aspects. In this respect, they differ from Planetary Tantra which is accessible to everyone, regardless of spiritual background, beliefs, initiations, training, etc. However, traditional termas from Tibetan Buddhism do have one important feature in common with "The Terma of Gaia Awakening," as I have titled it. Namely, termas in Vajrayana are closely associated with dakinis. This association goes to the heart and origin of "the Tibetan Treasure tradition of channelled authorial voices" (Germano and Gyatso, "Longchenpa and the Possession of the Dakinis," in Tantra in Practice). Nyingma legend states that its founder, Padma Sambhava, prepared around 800 CE the most famous terma of that tradition, the Longchen Nyingthig, and predetermined its discovery by the terton Jigme Lingpa (1730 - 1798), nine centuries in advance. Doing so, Padma Sambhava set the precedent on concealment of termas, whose preservation is consigned to dakinis. First, he imparted the teachings to close disciples living at that time, including his consort, the adept Vairochana, and King Trisong Detsun: He entrusted the teachings to them through the means of the naturally arising dakini, the wisdom, the feminine principle of the three bodies of the Buddha. He gave prophetic empowerments by saying that these teachings would be discovered by Jigma Lingpa, an incarnation (tulku) of King Trisong Detsun. Yeshe Tsogyal arranged the teachings in symbolic scripts of unforgetting memory on the yellow scrolls of naturally arisen five colors. With aspirational empowerments, they concealed the teachings in the casket of luminous heart treasure (or mind treasure) of the disciples. They entrusted the concealed teachings to the dakinis, the ultimate sphere wisdoms, for preservation until the right time came to awaken the teachings from the luminous intrinsic nature of the mind of the discoverer. (Tulku Thondup: Masters of Meditation and Miracles. Italics added.) This legend involves dakinis intimately in both the inception and discovery of termas, not to mention their preservation through the interval. The role of the Diamond Sky Dakinis and Mahavidyas of the Terma of Gaia Awakening is equally intimate, but with a different slant: the Gaian Dakinis are actually the instructors, operating through "the naturally arising ... wisdom, the feminine principle of the three bodies of the Buddha," or Gaian Trikaya, as I call it. They are not merely the guardians of this terma, but its originators and transmitters. All eighteen of them with VV focal are instrumental channels or super-animating voices of "the luminous intrinsic nature of the mind" of Gaia, she who is the living wisdom of the earth: Sophia in Greek, Vidya in Sanskrit. The name in Tibetan for the first planetary terma would be Dorje Namkhai Khandro Nyingthig, "Heart Essence of the Diamond Sky Dakinis." Dorje means "thunderbolt," but also "diamond, adamantine substance." The term Diamond Sky Dakini is not my invention. It comes from the Hevajra Tantra, VII, 30: "The samadhi of the vajrayosana is the way to supreme bliss." Scholars render vajrayosana as "adamantine girl." My translation: "The perfect attention (samadhi) of the Diamond Sky Dakini is the path to supreme bliss." How perfectly true is that. Dakini Standard In Planetary Tantra, I have no authority but the authenticity of my own experience as a natural-born mystic and veteran psychonaut. Take what I say on the beauty that informs it, and test it in your way. I am not an accomplished adept in communication with the Gaian Dakinis, but I have made some inroads into understanding how such communication is even possible, and charted some approaches to what its intent and direction might be. This is sobering instruction, I can tell you. Exciting to the max, wild and exhilarating, but deeply sobering. The first thing that struck me last year as I entered into this experience was the high standard to which the Gaian Dakinis hold those who would interact with them. I do not mean a moral standard, requiring exemplary behavior, ethical rules, or the like. Nor do I mean an intellectual standard, the requirement of high intelligence. Wild as it may sound, the standard of the Dakinis in the Shakti Cluster depends neither on ethics nor intelligence but ultimately on desire, on what you desire supremely of your life. Such is my instruction. Consider for a moment the composition of the 18-gauge Cluster: 10 Mahavidyas or Hindu goddesses, a jewel-flower or pentad of 5 Diamond Sky Dakinis, 2 overseeing guardians, above and below, and the 18th Dakini, VV. The distinctive feature of this format is the inclusion of Mahavidyas with Dakinis, for these two classes of feminine deities are quite different in character. The Mahavidyas belong to a religious tradition scholars called desideristic: that is, they are supernatural or mystical deities who grant desires. The Dakinis, especially the five of the pentad, belong to a different strain of religious striving, the quest for liberation. Hence scholars characterize them as liberationist. These two cumbersome terms, desideristic and liberationist, refer to seemingly contrasting goals attached to religious and spiritual striving. It is widely said that Tibetan dakinis such as Vajravarahi are superior to Hindu goddesses such as Matangi because the dakinis grant wisdom for liberation, while the Mahavidyas just grant personal desires, wishes, "boons," protection from harm, vengeance on enemies (including death), etc. This view obviously carries a value judgement on desire, making it an inferior goal compared to the quest for wisdom and liberation, including the intention to strive for the liberation of others. It might appear that there is a contradiction at the heart of the Shakti Cluster, including as it does both desideristic and liberationist agencies, which could be in conflict. But in my experience so far, I have come to realize that there is no such conflict because the coexistence of these feminine powers in the Gaian matrix merges the two goals. It does so because commitment to the liberationist goal, i.e., enlightenment, relies on the reflex of personal desire. To be liberated, even from one's personality, is also a personal desire. And even more surprizing (at least it was so to yours truly) is how the dynamic of desire generates liberation: how we achieve liberation through desire, not from it. This notion of liberation through desire sets up the initial or introductory condition for engaging the Shakti Cluster. But wait, it gets better. To achieve liberation through desire, which is the unique opportunity offered by interactivity with Gaia and her full console of divinities, the Diamond Sky Dakinis who foster liberation and instill wisdom collaborate with the Mahavidyas, who grant personal desires, in a most astonishing manner: they support all experience leading to liberation, they guide and instruct, but uniquely for individuals who recognize and own their highest desire. In other words, The Diamond Sky Dakinis hold you to your highest desire, your supreme personal desire, and do not dissociate it from the quest for liberation, but make it the paramount condition for that quest. It is impossible to understand the unprecedented spiritual opportunity this presents, as long as we are restricted to the traditional Buddhist teaching that desire (Skt trishna, "craving") is the root of all suffering, as stated in the Four Noble Truths attributed to the historical Buddha, Prince Siddharta or Shakyamuni. But the Buddha lied by omission. He only told half of his realized truth to the world at large. He taught that desire is your ticket into samsara, the game of rebirth. He withheld the second part of the teaching: namely, that desire is also your ticket out of the game, and, better still, it is the payoff for the game, the winning score. The Buddha reserved this, admittedly outrageous part of this enlightened teaching for a select group of followers including his cousin Ananda, Subhuti, Mayakashyapa, Shariputra, and Vimalakirti—that is to say, those fewest of the few disciples who received direct mind transmission of enlightenment and were confirmed first-hand in that transmission by Shakyamuni. Others who did not receive a confirmed experience of enlightenment, comparable to the Buddha's own, were not privy to the second part of the teaching about desire. So goes the secret oral legend of Kali Yuga, concerning liberation through desire. Now, with that particular tidy piece of information delivered, I ask you to consider this: The practice of Planetary Tantra is extremely rigorous because, being held to your highest desire by the Gaian Dakinis, you cannot proceed to interactivity with them unless you know what your highest desire is. And most people don't have a clue. Ask yourself, What is my supreme desire for my life, that would be my highest pleasure to accomplish? This is not an easy question to answer. I have yet to meet anyone who can answer it, clearly and definitively. To be held to your highest desire is the high standard for participation in Planetary Tantra, the condition for entry set by the Dakinis who foster liberation, in complicity with the Mahavidyas who lavishly grant all manner of personal desires, anything and everything you want. Supreme Design When I contemplate the extraordinary Dakini standard regarding desire, I have to say, in brutal honesty, that I have doubts about who can actually get onto this practice of Planetary Tantra. The initial condition set by this standard is going to rule out a great many contenders and pretenders. Age is also a factor, I believe. Beyond a certain age, say fifty or so, it is rare for an individual to know what his or her highest desire in life is, because the fluent of desire tends to recede into the background, taking a lesser priority with advanced years. Also, by that age many people will have achieved what they consider to be their desires, be it social status, affluence, security, career, family legacy, and so on. The question of what one desires fades as these achievements gel, so maturity and achievement work against the recognition of one's highest desire. Excuse me if this sounds like ageism. I may be guilty of that offence, but I am just reporting with total candor what I encounter on a case by case basis. Naming the highest desire for your life is quite a challenge. Younger people do not have a definitive edge, but they do have the advantage of raw passion to drive them to the challenge. Planetary Tantra will not develop until the end of the kalpa, 2216 CE, by being passed on in a conventional way from the older to the younger generation. It will be generated by youth, inceptively. G-1 transmission is the exception, in that older generation Kalikas such as myself initially announce the path. The duration of the Terma of Gaia Awakening from October 2008 is 208 years. You may now understand more clearly my reservations about how much I can transmit. There are not a lot of principles in Kala Tantra. Only three, in fact. Which I have yet to state on this site—coming soon. These principles are not to be confounded with the five ritual components of the practice, released on Delivery Day. And then there is an ongoing set of Instructions, to be developed and tested by everyone who comes into the path. One of the Instructions is, "Hold to your highest desire, for the capacity for liberation depends on what you want it for." This is a sublime and rigorous teaching, if I do say so myself. I challenge anyone to come up with a principle that demands a more exquisite and ruthlessly honest pitch of self-knowledge. The Dakini standard on desire makes interactivity with the Shakti Cluster self-selective, with those who cannot meet this standard being eliminated at the outset. I realize that this statement sounds elitist, and incites separation. But all the phenomena of nature involve a factor of selection, don't they? Why should human nature be any different? I do not mean "natural selection," which is a stupid fiction, or survival of the fittest, which is a mean falsity. I mean the selection of what can work on its own terms: a boat badly designed and poorly built will not sail. It is "deselected" from sailing on its own terms, on the basis of its design and the real-world expression of that design. Desire is the measure of the supreme design of human nature. In the human species, exceptional among animals but not superior, desire determines who is selected for interactivity with Gaia, and how. Correct me if I am delusional, but this looks to me like an extremely radical notion. I am shocked by it myself. I do not find this notion expressed or even implied, either in evolutionary science or religious philosophy. Personally, I am staggered by this truth, if it is indeed a truth. That I seem to be the one who enounces it for the first time, in this precise language, does not make it any less astonishing to me. I have found that, when asked to state their highest desire, people express confusion and bafflement. This is because, first, true desire has become clouded and deviant in the atmosphere of our have-it-all world, and second, because we today, although we in the West appear to live in an indulgent society where all desires are granted, do not experience the level of intense pleasure that would attune us to our highest desire. Failure to identify one's highest desire is an hedonic problem, typical of the degeneration of pleasure in Kali Yuga. I must add, but without sufficient justification within the limits of this essay, that the desire to strive for the liberation of all sentient beings (Bodhisattva Vow) is spurious and won't get you to a first date with the Dakinis. It cannot be anyone's highest desire, because it is an implant, a prescribed wish. It is a plea for service, yes, but service is not in the Gaian Dakini agenda: neither service nor selfishness adhere in the admission of highest desire. Furthermore, the Bodhisattva Vow is unrealizable, a vain motive. The desire to aid the liberation of one other sentient being, one only, could meet the Dakini standard, perhaps. But then we're talking love, aren't we? And love is personal. Also, note that love is not a term of use in Buddhist philosophy. Compassion, yes: karuna. Friendship, yes: maitri. But there is no proper word for love in the Buddhist idiom. Sanskrit distinguishes poorly between love and desire, putting both under the generic term, kama. Pleasure is both the initial condition and final effect of owning your highest desire. In other words, the more pleasure you feel, purely for its own sake, in hedonistic excess, the closer you will come to attunement to your true desire. And when you own your true desire, you will also realize your highest pleasure in it. Desire and pleasure are complementary and intergenerating. Co-emergent, as Buddhist jargon has it. I repeat, the Dakini standard determines a self-selection process regarding interactivity. Consider this: If you fix on your highest desire and it is not the right and true one, but a mistaken, misstated, or spurious one, you can blow yourself right out of the running. In this practice, a near miss is almost always fatal. For instance, suppose that your highest desire is to be famed as the greatest downhill skier in the world. Stated precisely in that way, because it must be defined precisely to meet the standard. But suppose this is a spurious or misstated desire, the true desire being to be the greatest downhill skier, even if not recognized as such, without fame. Such a slight misstatement of the highest desire will throw you totally out of the range of interactivity. Syntax is crucial: for instance, "My highest desire is to be the greatest downhill skier in the world, whether or not I am famous for it," is a more cogent formulation, fitting the standard of high definition. Without such rigor of formulation, you will not get to square one with guidance and instruction of the Dakinis, not to mention the lavish generosity of the Mahavidyas who are ready, willing, and able to grant anything you want compatible with your highest desire, cogently stated. Kali's Game Gaming is the master teaching metaphor for Kali Yuga. Defined in this idiom, Planetary Tantra is a desideristic game with a liberationist aim. In that paradoxical merge resides the automatic selection for the practice: know what you want supremely to be freed of having to want anything at all. To meet that standard of self-knowing is not the end result of Gaian interactivity in Planetary Tantra: is the entry condition for the practice. But it is also the goal of the practice. Tantra is not a result-driven process. It is an instanteous feedback dynamic, an immediate and perpetual turnaround. This is why this essay on desire is categorized under GOAL. I cannot teach anyone how to define their highest desire. No one can. You find your way to it, or not. I believe G-2 Kalikas, born in 1976 or after, now 33 years old and under, will be more likely to claim their highest desire, and subsequent generations will have even better odds. The odds will be better, but the number of self-selected participants will diminish proportionally due to the exponential rise in population we are now facing. It might be argued that people of G-2 and succeeding generations will be so blitzed by the consumer trance and media-driven mass-mind programming of their every wish and whim that they will have a much harder time to identify their highest desire. Perhaps, but I strongly sense that as the acquisition game becomes more desperate, the chances for some players will improve. To put it in other terms, the breakthrough to the highest desire will be spectacular in future generations, with more frequent random hits, due to the extreme conditions of social conformity. I can foresee that some rare few people will be driven by extremity to know their highest desire as their sole means of survival, morally and physically, in a social world that has lost all sense of what's worth desiring. Where there is abundance of enjoyment in desire, of what use is it to speak of union with the Divine, and where there is union out of this world, where is the enjoyment here and now? But the Kalika knows both. Oh Sadashiva, Benefactor of the Universe!, You have generously spoken of the mode of worship of the Supreme Prakriti, Mother Power, which benefits all beings equally, and provides the sole path for enjoyment and liberation together, the unique path of immediate liberation in Kali Yuga. - Mahanirvana Tantra jll 21 February 2009 Andalucia
TOWARD THE SECRET GATHERING
Freedom and Desire in the Shakti Cluster In How to Practice Planetary Tantra, I sought to clarify the elementary conditions of interactive magic with Gaia. The foundation of the practice is, of course, taking the Vow. I advise doing this ritual in pairs. You may do it as many times as you like, but only once with each person. If necessary, keep trying until it feels totally right. The aim of this essay is to offer some concluding guidelines on basic practice. I signal the word basic. Planetary Tantra comprises two levels, basic and advanced. So far I have used the terms Planetary Tantra and Kala Tantra more or less interchangeably. But this is not totally correct, and may be misleading. To clarify: Planetary Tantra is basic practice of interactive magic with Gaia, Kala Tantra is advanced practice. By the end of this essay you ought to have a clear notion of this distinction. Sacred Instruction In Tibetan Buddhism, taking instruction means receiving oral teaching from a recognized lama or tulku. This is direct, word-of-mouth transmission of doctrine and technique, sealed by a vow (samaya). The instruction may consist of philosophical ideas but more often it will concern the specifics of ritual practice. For instance, instruction in diety yoga, the visualization of a yidam for the purpose of achieving a higher state of awareness. This is a common practice in the generation stage (development stage) of Atiyoga. In Planetary Tantra, instruction comes directly from the Sacred Mind of Sophia. Let's recall the Tantric conversion: Sophia :: Wisdom :: Vidya. Earth Wisdom is the property of the Buddha Nature manifesting in the Sambhoga form of this planet, and engaging the Nirmana form of sentient life in the biosphere. In other words, the Buddha Nature articulates itself in this display as a planet, in the natural world, and supernaturally, in any way it likes. The Absolute may be inexpressible, or not, but one thing is certain: it is infinitely expressive. Mayavada Vedanta is a dualistic approach to reality that takes interest in the expressions of the Absolute, One Mind, rather than dismissing and dissolving those expressions in order to return to their source. My spiritual legacy is Mayavada, dualist and phenomenalist—meaning, you take phenomena for real and not merely for an illusion that shrouds ultimate reality. Mayavada means "approach through Maya." Maya is not illusion, something false, deceptive, and unreal, something we need to get beyond. What is beyond time and space reaches us right here, in appearance. Maya is the real expression of the inexpressible source of awareness and appearances alike. Traditionally, Shakta religion or Shaktism has taken the Mayavada approach, stressing duality so that reunion can be realized. Duality is not separation but, paradoxically, the condition for unity. The ultimate metaphysical trinity is DUALITY - ONENESS - UNITY. Emphasis on oneness alone denies duality, as seen in the Advaita Vedanta (non-dualist) approach which takes appearances to be an illusion arising from another illusion, that of separation from the Oneness. But unity combines duality and oneness. It allows separation so that relationships can develop. This I consider to be a more complete and generous version of metaphysical truth. I strongly encourage you to consider the Mayavadin perspective. Basic practice in Planetary Tantra restores and reignites each individual's innate connection to the Divine Feminine. Tantra has been called "the cult of the Feminine." This characterization applies for Planetary Tantra as well. I have explained the need for the exclusive and overriding emphasis on the feminine in this path. If this emphasis troubles you, I would suggest that you reflect on this question: What is Woman to Gaia? TOWARD THE SECRET GATHERINGFreedom and Desire in the Shakti Cluster In How to Practice Planetary Tantra, I sought to clarify the elementary conditions of interactive magic with Gaia. The foundation of the practice is, of course, taking the Vow. I advise doing this ritual in pairs. You may do it as many times as you like, but only once with each person. If necessary, keep trying until it feels totally right. The aim of this essay is to offer some concluding guidelines on basic practice. I signal the word basic. Planetary Tantra comprises two levels, basic and advanced. So far I have used the terms Planetary Tantra and Kala Tantra more or less interchangeably. But this is not totally correct, and may be misleading. To clarify: Planetary Tantra is basic practice of interactive magic with Gaia, Kala Tantra is advanced practice. By the end of this essay you ought to have a clear notion of this distinction. Sacred Instruction In Tibetan Buddhism, taking instruction means receiving oral teaching from a recognized lama or tulku. This is direct, word-of-mouth transmission of doctrine and technique, sealed by a vow (samaya). The instruction may consist of philosophical ideas but more often it will concern the specifics of ritual practice. For instance, instruction in diety yoga, the visualization of a yidam for the purpose of achieving a higher state of awareness. This is a common practice in the generation stage (development stage) of Atiyoga. In Planetary Tantra, instruction comes directly from the Sacred Mind of Sophia. Let's recall the Tantric conversion: Sophia :: Wisdom :: Vidya. Earth Wisdom is the property of the Buddha Nature manifesting in the Sambhoga form of this planet, and engaging the Nirmana form of sentient life in the biosphere. In other words, the Buddha Nature articulates itself in this display as a planet, in the natural world, and supernaturally, in any way it likes. The Absolute may be inexpressible, or not, but one thing is certain: it is infinitely expressive. Mayavada Vedanta is a dualistic approach to reality that takes interest in the expressions of the Absolute, One Mind, rather than dismissing and dissolving those expressions in order to return to their source. My spiritual legacy is Mayavada, dualist and phenomenalist—meaning, you take phenomena for real and not merely for an illusion that shrouds ultimate reality. Mayavada means "approach through Maya." Maya is not illusion, something false, deceptive, and unreal, something we need to get beyond. What is beyond time and space reaches us right here, in appearance. Maya is the real expression of the inexpressible source of awareness and appearances alike. Traditionally, Shakta religion or Shaktism has taken the Mayavada approach, stressing duality so that reunion can be realized. Duality is not separation but, paradoxically, the condition for unity. The ultimate metaphysical trinity is DUALITY - ONENESS - UNITY. Emphasis on oneness alone denies duality, as seen in the Advaita Vedanta (non-dualist) approach which takes appearances to be an illusion arising from another illusion, that of separation from the Oneness. But unity combines duality and oneness. It allows separation so that relationships can develop. This I consider to be a more complete and generous version of metaphysical truth. I strongly encourage you to consider the Mayavadin perspective. Basic practice in Planetary Tantra restores and reignites each individual's innate connection to the Divine Feminine. Tantra has been called "the cult of the Feminine." This characterization applies for Planetary Tantra as well. I have explained the need for the exclusive and overriding emphasis on the feminine in this path. If this emphasis troubles you, I would suggest that you reflect on this question: What is Woman to Gaia?
As you come into the basic practice of interactive magic with Gaia, your innermost feeling and intuitions about Woman will be profoundly altered. Both men and women will sense this change, especially when the Vow has taken effect properly. Gradually, you will realize that Woman is a lens through which Sophia sees herself in incarnation; the nature of the lens causes her to see herself gendered as female, but she also sees men through the same lens, as mutated women! Biologically, women and men both arise from a female ground plan or genetic matrix, with the mere variation of one chromosome to determine the difference. Woman incarnates in men and women alike. Man only incarnates in men. Man is another kind of lens, the filter through which Sophia sees humanity, the Anthropos, not herself, the Aeon. Yet in her vision Sophia merges these two perspectives as our two eyes, right and left, give us a single, integrated picture of the world.
In the divine imagination of the Aeon Sophia, the Anthropos is the consort yoga of Woman and Man. It is both male and female, and neither male nor female, and it does not even exist unless Woman and Man are both engaged immanently in maithuna, sacred intercourse. To speak less mysteriously, if I can, interaction with Gaia leads to the vivid realization that the Anthropos (projected from the Pleroma by the Aeon Sophia and another Aeon in a ritual of consort yoga, remember?) is not the human species in its biological manifestation, but the dreamed coupling of Woman and Man, perpetually sustained in Sophia's Mind: a living dream of embodied love, a divine bisexual emanation. As the Vow takes effect, your subconscious will be implanted with the recognition of this emanation. When this sublime intuition matures in one's heart, it will be increasingly impossible to accept any theological notions about humanity, any received assumptions about the genders, or any evolutionary concepts of the human species, that do not incorporate the magical notion of bipolaric emanation. Interactivity with Gaia is magical. The first magic to be realized in basic practice is that Sophia and her consort Aeon did not create the Anthropos: they emanated it, and still do. Humanity was never created in a literal sense, for it is perpetually being dreamed into life. Additional to the massive sea change in the perception of humanity, interactivity with Gaia will bring surges of sacred instruction. She and she alone is the guru, the sole master, the spiritual teacher of humankind entire. Learning that comes straight from the Goddess has been associated with the Hindu goddess Sarasvati and other icons of feminine wisdom. Indeed, I would say that the figure of Sarasvati is the one received image that best represents Gaia as instructor to those who take the Vow. Sarasvati is often shown playing the vina, an instrument from Southern India that hints at her Dravidian roots. Musical, linguistic, and acoustic talents are strongly enhanced by Gaian interactivity. The corresponding figure in Native American spirituality would be White Buffalo Woman. The white buffalo calf is an atavistic vision of the Anthropos, the animal double of humanity, you could say. White Buffalo Woman instructs the tribes of the planet in rituals of atonement with the Great Spirit (Originator, Gnostic Pleroma), such as the smoking of the Peace Pipe. In the very same way, Gaia will grant sacred instruction to those receptive to it, in the manner that suits them and resonates to their talents, wishes, and passions. Through her instruction, she will bring many people to recognition of the interspecies bond, for the Anthropos exists in relation to all sentient beings, not alone, not separate or superior. Three Studies If you undertake interactive magic with Gaia, you will come to know directly and irrefutably how the Aeon Sophia teaches the Anthropos to each and every one of us, by private instruction, you could say. Gnostics attributed this particular type of instruction to Mary Magdalene—some evidence of which survives in the Pistis Sophia (pre-Nag Hammadi) and the framentary Gospel of Mary. Magdalene symbolizes the intuitive feminine power to recognize the Anthropos, authentic humanity, pitelios rhome in Coptic. In truth, the sense of humanity cannot be taught or acquired externally in any way, from any person. It is totally intrinsic. But can be acquired, in a sense, by divine instruction accessible to everyone. Magdalene and other Gnostically enlightened women carried that unique instruction and pointed others to it. They midwifed the Sophianic teaching of the Anthropos in others. Planetary Tantra is Shakti worship—not in the manner of church services, of course, but as a daily discipline of articulated intuition and ongoing self-education. Today, Shakti worship is less a devotional path than an educational one: taking instruction from Sophia. Basic practice in Planetary Tantra expands into a lifestyle by the undertaking of three subjects: the great mandala of the Shakti Cluster (space), the pattern of lunar cycles (time), and the Vajra Jewel (matter, sensation). Practice is voluntary, chosen by each individual, but these studies could as well be pursued in couples or groups. Learning about the Shakti Cluster can be done in any way you like. For instance, look at the site detailing the imagery and attributes of the Mahavidyas, including the powers they grant to their devotees. The remaining eight deities of the Cluster can be investigated through books on Tibetan Buddhism and Female Buddhas, etc. I recommend Miranda Shaw's magnificent Buddhist Goddess of India as the foundation text of Shakti Cluster studies. Each person will be attracted to some figures more than others. Sensational connections will occur. Some individuals by mere study will connect with a guardian. Meditation on the Shakti Cluster can be immensely enriching and may well inspire all manner of artistic expressions in music, painting, and dance. A whole new religious disposition is compressed into this configuration, but it must always be focussed on the central factor, Dakini 18, VV. Inspirational work with the Mahavidyas and Diamond Sky Dakinis can erupt in your imagination like a fireworks display. Many digressions and even regressions can arise when you explore the labyrinthine realms of the Divine Feminine. With mythical material, there is always a risk of getting lost or overwhelmed.... But, to complete the metaphor, remember that all the fireworks come off the ground in the first place. The eighteen-gauge Shakti Cluster gives focus and direction to all that arises in the human psyche with "the return of the Goddess." To return to the Goddess, return your attention continually to VV, she who will give you her attention. Lunar Shaktis The second study in basic practice is month-to-month tracking of the lunar cycles as they relate to the Mahavidyas and Dakinis in the Cluster. A different Shakti comes on shift with each new moon and transmits from 29 days. Following the lunar cycle in the Tantric Zodiac presents continuous opportunities to learn how the Shaktis operate, recognize their frequencies, and respond to their instruction. This study is a month-long meditation ritual that sensitizes you to the telepathic emanations of the entire Cluster, one Shakti at a time. Dakini Wisdom emerges in your ordinary mindstream as an alternative current of thought that gradually becomes more and more distinct from your own stream of inner talk. To learn this distinction is to acquire trained clairaudience, transception. Clairaudience is a time-tried method in Tibetan Tantra and many other schools of cognitive illumination. Long Chen Pa (1308–1364/9) was a high siddha of the Nyingma Pa, the school of Tibetan Tantra to which Kala Tantra may be compared. The method he practiced and taught is called in Tibetan sems dpa' rdo rje, and in Sanskrit, sattvavajra. This is a process of interactive transmission between the Wisdom Sphere of the Dakinis and human mentation, self-conscious thinking. In this process, the pure ground dimension of the non-originated mind (rigpa) converses spontaneously with itself. Scholars translate sems dpa' rdo rje as "cognitive responsiveness" (Lipman and Peterson, You Are the Eyes of the World). I call it transception; verb, to transceive. See Earth Terma and Stone Terma (forthcoming) for more on the tranception of Dakini Wisdom. "Invoking the lunar shaktis is our method," Aunt Preema tells the young Shambu in Amarananda Bhairavan's Medicine of Light. Bhairivan is a Dravidian revivalist who as a boy was taught goddess lore and sorcery by his Aunt Preema, an odiyya or witch dedicated to Kali. His books are loaded with exotic lore that seems quite authentic. Presented through storytelling, the lessons of the village matriarch are highly reminiscent of supernaturalism a la Castaneda, right down to the image of that old-time witch's familiar, the crow.
I recommend this book (published in 2000) and Medicine of Light (2007). Both contain a good deal of mystical lore pertinent to Planetary Tantra. The "kaula sorcery" of Amaranada Bhariavan anticipates Kala Tantra in many respects, and sets the atmosphere for advanced work. It will whet your appetite for mysteries and marvels to come.
Sensory Illumination The third topic of study after the Shakti Cluster (space, atmosphere) and the cycle of lunar shaktis (time, mindstream) is the Vajra Jewel (matter, sensation). The center of this jewel is VV herself, Dakini 18. The five points of the inverted star surrounding her are occuped by the Diamond Sky Dakinis classed as Female Buddhas (FB) and Wisdom Dakinis (WD): 11 Nairatmya (nai RAHT MYAH), "whose body is the sky" FB 12 Vajravarahi "Diamond Sow,"a powerful revealer WD 13 Kurukulla mistress of witchcraft and enchantment WD 14 Parnashavari "The Leaf-Clad Lady," shamanic deity FB 15 Visvamata "The Variegated Mother," FB As explained in How to Practice Planetary Tantra, the five Diamond Sky Dakinis command your attention through the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. The sixth, Dakini 18, commands your attention through the faculty of memory by liberating it from the involuntary task of remembering. With the study of the Vajra Jewel, basic practice moves deeply into interactive magic. At the basic level of Planetary Tantra, the tools of magic are your own five senses, plus your memory. The correlations of the Diamond sky Dakinis to the five senses are an essential part of the interactive tool kit embedded at the center of the Shakti Cluster. These correlations are as follows: 11 Nairatmya Blissful Inclusion - seeing 12 Vajravarahi Blissful Freedom - hearing 13 Kurukulla Blissful Passion - taste 14 Parnashavari Blissful Vitality - smell 15 Visvamata Blissful Surrender - touch These correlations can and must be test-run and verified by direct experience, one person at a time. The impact of the Shakti Cluster becomes a vivid reality as you realize that the Diamond Sky Dakinis are immediately present in the field of your senses, inside what you receive as sense impressions. The numinous presence of the Dakinis is infrasensory. For instance, inside ordinary sense impressions of seeing surge the emanations of Blissful Inclusion of Nairatmya. Her energies, her sublime frequencies are not just coordinated with your sense impressions, they are inseparable from them. What you experience as perceiving sights with your eyes, Nairatmya experiences as a dance of bliss-filled currents that expand infinitely to include the entire sky. To see eternity in a grain of sand (as the poet William Blake divined) is an experience of realization of Blissful Inclusion through a visual impression. Were this to happen, you would see the entire universe, all that is to be seen, far and near, included in the singular sight of a grain of sand in your hand. This is not fantasy, but something that can really be known and felt directly. Nairatmya confers this experience perpetually and spontaneously as you allow your attention to merge with hers, thus seeing as she does. On her signature frequency, we are entrained to the realization prescribed in Mahayana teaching by the theory of pugdala-nairatmya, "the absence of self in persons." Blissful inclusion of all selves in one look comes with direct perception of the absence of self in any person, including the one looking. Such is the instruction of Nairatmya. What you experience in the ordinary impressions of smell, coming, say, from a pine tree in the breeze, Parnashavari on her side feels as a surge of bliss-filled vigor, rich, superactivated vitality. Sensations of smell contain coded information about the healing and harming properties of plants, animals, and people. Pheremones are the operative memes of this Diamond Sky Dakini, through which she associates people for the celebration and enhancement of heightened vitality, sexual joy, and healing. You want to get high with someone whose scent you like, and vice versa, and scent itself is a potent psychoactive catalyst. Parnashavari instructs through smell. And so on with the other Dakinis of the Vajra Jewel with VV at the center. Some of these correlations can be compared, if you like, to traditional teachings in Tibetan Buddhism. For instance, the Tibetan Book of the Dead is called the bardo thodol, "liberation by hearing on the bardo plane or intermediate zone." The notion of liberation by hearing resonates closely to the frequences of Vajravarahi whose signature is Blissful Freedom, pervading the sense of hearing. Many accounts in Buddhist literature attest to immediate liberation and supreme enlightenment through the faculty of hearing. By far the most famous of such accounts occurs in the Surangama Sutra, an 8th century Mahayanist text regarded as a foundation teaching in Ch'an Buddhism. In this sutra, twenty-five Bodhisattvas recount their achievement of samadhi, perfect attention. At the end of the discussion, the Buddha asserts that the way to samadhi through hearing is superior to all others. This is one of the key insights of non-attainment teaching in Ch'an Buddhism. Gaian Biofeedback "What is that Talent which it is a curse to hide?" The "Secret Gathering" of Planetary Tantra is the Shakti Cluster, and in another sense, it is the empathic unification of everyone who interacts with the Cluster. Interactive magic with Gaia is a biofeedback process with the Cluster as the monitor. In the typical biofeedback experiment, the subject is hooked up to a machine such as a blood pressure gauge or electrodes that measure brain waves (EEG). The monitor provides feedback about the internal workings of the subject's body. By concentrating the mind and emotions in a ritual act of attention, the subject can cause changes in blood pressure or modify brain waves, and immediately see these results on the monitor. Biofeedback provides instant proof that mental and emotional states alter the way the body functions. It raises what is involuntary to the level of conscious volition. To be alive is to be in a constant biofeedback loop with the entire planet as the monitor, but normally we do not have a specific way to read the monitor. We just see the earth, feel it beneath our feet, and know that we depend on it for every breath we take, but we do not interact with it in a voluntary way. Consequently, we do not understand how breathing or any other involuntary act could register on the planet monitor and feed information back to us, as data comes from the biofeedback device. To experience a biofeedback loop with the planet, i.e., interactive magic, we need to supply something that defines the looping function of the monitor. This supplementation is done with the faculty of imagination. The purpose of imagination in our species is to center a visionary projection onto the earth that feeds back to us our direct connection to the planet, and allows us to evolve that connection in vital and sensory intimacy. The imaginary scenario is the monitor that feeds back dakini instruction on how to live interactively with Gaia. Many scenarios will induce some kind of empathic participation with Gaia, but the full console of the Shakti Cluster is the paramount tool for attaining such participation. It cannot be matched or surpassed by any other scenario, symbol, or concept. It is, at this unique moment in history, the supreme artifex for the religious imagination of humankind. Medieval alchemists, who were in some respects forerunners of Planetary Tantra, used the term artifex for the imaginary monitor to Gaia. This archaic word can refer to any tool or device or image or symbol or ritual object that produces a biofeedback effect. For instance, a valentine, the image of the Virgin Mary, or the logo of the Communist Party. Such symbols are products of human imagination through which the power of imagination works back upon whoever considers them. However, there is a crucial difference between such well-known symbols and the Shakti Cluster: conventional religious symbols and images affect those who consider them whether or not they have been produced by the individual so affected. The Shakti Cluster, on the other hand, does not affect anyone who does not participate vividly in producing and sustaining it with their own imagination, supported by deep empathy and rigorous intent. The visionary scenario of the 18-gauge console cannot be entertained in a passive way: it has to be engaged by choice. Those who engage it are selected by it. Those who do not engage it are deselected from the purposes of Gaia-Sophia. Such is my instruction. The poet William Blake asked, "What is that Talent which it is a curse to hide?" The answer is: the talent of imagination. But not just imagination for indulgence, fantasy, escape, self-glorification, vicarious atonement, and like. Imagination applied to the specific purpose of forming a biofeedback loop with Gaia-Sophia is a talent unique to our species. Other species are supplied with this loop in their instinctual programs. We alone have the responsibility to supply it for ourselves.
Scholars ponder the inclusion of the Tibetan goddess Tara, the Liberator, among the Mahavidyas. Her Tibetan name is Drolma, "she who crosses over." She seems out of place among that outrageous crew of witches with their "desideristic" powers to grant personal desires and indulge every selfish wish and impulse of their devotees. Tara is the paramount figure of the liberationist goal of spiritual practice, leading people across samsara from ignorance to enlightenment. She represents selfless commitment to the liberation of all sentient beings. How then can her presence among the Mahavidyas be explained? Ought she not be grouped with the Female Buddhas of the Vajra Jewel?
There is a rare form of Tara almost unknown to the millions who regard her as the sweet, benevolent guide to liberation. The Wrathful Green Tara (above) occupies a unique role in the Shakti Cluster. As the sole Female Buddha among the Mahavidyas, she has the special role of receiving whoever "crosses over" into the Secret Gathering. The use of the faculty of imagination, that precious talent which it is a curse to hide, selects or deselects us for Gaia's purposes, including mutation of the human species. This process is witnessed by Gaia herself through one unique member of the Shakti Cluster: the Wrathful Green Tara, who may be called the Selector. jll 22 March 2009 Andalucia. Under completion with Nairatmya. Kali Definition
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