Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition

Unlike the history you might have been forced to learn in school, the history of the Tantrik traditions is a fascinating story that consists not merely of information, but of inspirational and powerful ideas—some of the most original ideas ever conceived concerning human potential. Historically, these ideas were inextricably wedded to transformativ

The Tantrik masters evolved their teachings and techniques as an unbroken whole, a well-crafted interconnected matrix designed to free you permanently from ignorance and suffering. So when you understand the profound and exquisite vision of reality that was originally taught in connection to these yogic practices, this knowledge empowers your pract

What we discover is that instead of walking a path to reach a specific final destination, we are walking it to learn how to walk it. The moment we fall into simple harmony with the walking, dissolving ideas about our destination or our identity as a walker, path and goal merge into one. In other words, liberation is complete when we are no longer w

Let me clarify that here “worship” means—at the very least—the actual evocation of the power of the Deity and interaction with it. More commonly, it means becoming that deity through techniques of ritualized meditation and/or meditative ritual, either temporarily or as part of a process by which any perception of difference between oneself and the

associated with a specific religious tradition, the religion of Śiva-Śakti, also known as Shaivism, the dominant religion of India throughout the medieval period.

section.) The Krama school of NŚT teaches that we can observe the divine acts of sṛṣṭi, sthiti, and saṃhāra in the arising and falling away of each and every cognition

Swāmī Muktānanda (“Bābā”) probably did more than anyone else in the 20th century to make the teachings of Śaiva Tantra known in the West,

Dharmabodhi Sarasvatī.

But, and this can hardly be said too many times, ānanda is simply the chief by-product of realization, it is not the goal of the path, and it is not more divine than anything else. If you think otherwise, you will starting grasping after it and building a new “spiritual” self-image around it, and then you are caught again. Probably the greatest pit