By : 
Enhance Your Mind Power with Tantra Psychology
Tantra- old Sanskrit term- denotes esoteric meditation traditions of India. It is related to Shiva or Shakti tradition. Tantric Hindu and Buddhist traditions have influenced other Eastern religious traditions. With an appropriate opposite-sex partner, Tantra transcends both sexual and spiritual planes by engaging in deeply meditative, spontaneous, and intimate sex.
Classic Tantric Quest
Classic Tantric practice as was prevalent in India tried to transform the sexual union into sublime levels through the typical mystic way. But gradually, it lost its luster and sublimity in the smog of time over thousands of years.
The origin of the tantric traditions is not fully clear. There is scattered history largely due to the paucity of historical evidence in India. It seems to have first emerged during the Gupta dynasty (320–550 ce) in India. The term tantra and the tantric traditions have been subjected to a great deal of misunderstanding in both India and the West. Most people take an interest in it because they think that the tantric quest provides higher sexual satisfaction. There have been attempts to trace back the roots of these classical traditions much earlier, to the time of the Buddha or the time of ancient Indian sages, or even back to the Indus Valley Civilization.
The West has used and researched the Tantric quest as an esoteric meditation for more enlightening sexual achievement. In practice, tantra is about enlightenment. With an appropriate opposite-sex partners, Tantra transcends both sexual and spiritual planes by engaging in deeply meditative, spontaneous, and intimate sex.
Tantra and Shaivism
Tantrism has been the comparable tradition that has upheld the sacredness of feminism in India in the Classical period. It is interconnected with Shaktism; the Tantric worship of women is central to its spiritual working. According to Shaktisangama Tantra, Woman is the creator of the universe as Mother, the universe is her form; a woman is the foundation of the world, she is the true form of the body, Nature, the Mother.
Åšaiva tantric practice promoted the erotic and transgressive practices and the focus on female deities. They refer to the clans of yoginÄ«s (woman partner) into which the initiated male “hero” (vÄ«ra) sought entry. Such traditional practice was widely known as the Kaula tradition.
Features of Tantra
1. Male and female Yogis engage in erotic ritual with a view to achieving body- mind- soul union.
2. Gruesome practices for the soothing of the fierce gods MahÄbhairava/Bhairava and ChÄmuṇá¸Ä. These are some forms of Goddess Kali.
3. The notion that supernatural powers may be attained through the extraction by yogic means of the vital essences of living beings and unions.
4. Initiation through the consumption of consecrated liquor is there in Tantra tradition.
5. Possessiveness is an essential feature in this Tantra.
Kashmir Åšaivism evolved during the 10th century, about 1000 years ago. Kashmir was one of the centers of gravity of Indian philosophical development, where Brahmins were ethnic populace. Abhinava Gupta (c. 975–1025 ce) was one of the best-known Kashmir Åšaiva theologians. He was a creative author who wrote a number of commentaries on major works from the Trika and Krama traditions, as well as works in philosophy and aesthetics. The hard-core practices were domesticated and internalized by him, alongside creating in their place “soft core” contemplative exercises. This is apparently the origin of the distinction in the tantric traditions between unorthodox practice (vÄmÄcÄra) and orthodox practice (daká¹£iṇÄcÄra). A similar development also occurred in Buddhist traditions; a tendency to neutralize the more radical elements of tantric practice. Haá¹hayoga tradition got evolved out of this sect. Much later these traditions changed tantric yoga involving breath control, i.e., what is known as prÄṇÄyÄma, and the retention and transformation of sexual fluids via complex yogic exercises.
According to Kaula Tantra, one should bow to any female, be she a young girl, flushed with youth, or be she old, be she beautiful or ugly, good or wicked. Women are mother, sister, grandmother. They are soft like Nature but become fierce like Nature during a calamity. They must not be beaten, harassed. All such acts prevent the attainment of siddhi.
Female gurus are held with very high esteem, they are examples of yoginis or female tantriks. In the Yoni Tantra, it is said: "Women are divinity, women are life, women are true jewels." This sentiment is echoed in many other tantras such as the Shakti Sangama Tantra, Devirahasya, and elsewhere. Everybody should respect women, help them, learn from them, they are Shakti and Kal. (Kaula Jnana Nirnaya Tantra). In contemporary society, Tantric Sadhana (Yoga) has diminished significantly.
The relevance of Tantra:
It was an old-world traditional practice in India. We belong to a world now which is essentially industrialized. Lifestyle, livelihood, society and polity have thoroughly changed. Most people live in urban areas, population density has increased enormously, trust and faith are dwindling at faster rates. The essence of the Tantric quest was meditation, concentration and assimilation of body mind soul far away from the locality. That secluded locality is no more. Still, the fundamental objective of Tantric Exercise being devotion, concentration, meditation is more relevant in this otherwise competitive uncertain restless world. If we can ignore the ritual parts of Tantra and adopt the concentration dimension, we can still get positive results as a complementary practice of Yoga.
