Tantra is a bit like the new black in spiritual communities these days. Even so, there are still many misconceptions about what tantra really is and I often meet people who associate it with a “do-what-you-want!"- attitude or with what they call “tantric sex" - a much more recent tradition originating with Pierre Bernard and Aleister Crowley about a hundred years ago, and whose methods are not found in Tantrik scriptures. (Although, as with modern postural yoga, it seems that tantric sexuality (sometimes - and beneficially - called neotantra, sexibility or sacred sexuality) is undergoing tantra-zation, by incorporating more tantrik philosophy and some more traditional practices in its synthesis).

So what is classical tantra?

Giving a brief answer to that question is complicated by the fact that the word tantra is used as a collective term for several traditions with both similarities and differences among them.

The word tantra itself has several meanings in sanskrit, among them are "framework, systems", as in a system of methods, "doctrine, theory" and "scripture" - and it is precisely the scriptures of the traditions (the tantras and agamas) that has given rise to the collective term of tantra used today.

One can talk about tantra as a spiritual movement that arose within Shaivism (also Shaktism. First scripture: Nisvasa tattva samhita about 500-625 AD) and which affected the development of circles of almost all then existing South Asian religions, such as ex. Vaishnavism, Jainism, and Buddhism. (Tibetan Buddhism, for example, is almost completely tantrik).

Tantra was a new way of carrying out spiritual practice, involving both worldly goals of enjoyment (siddhi/bhukti) as well as the goal of liberation from suffering (moksha) and awakening (Bohga). In the introduction to the book Tantra in practice, David Gordon White writes that:

Some methods that occurred in many of the tantrik lineages are meditation, visualization, mantra, mudra, mandala/yantra, initiation, and deity yoga.

The yoga that one encounters in studios today often has concepts and methods from classical tantra, albeit, often, in a watered down/fragmeneted form, and many times without anchoring in its original background. For example, tantrik yoga, and later hatha-yoga (which grew out of tantrik Shaivism), were the only forms of yoga in pre-modern time to describe and utilize methods for the energy body, with eg. kundalini, nadis, and chakras.* Something worth mentioning is that there are many different chakra systems in the original traditions. The chakra system with seven chakras that is popular in the West, was formed in 1577.

Non-dual Shaivism

The form of tantra that I study and - to the extent that I have had access to - practice is non-dual Shaivism (which is also a collective term, but which is used since I am not initiated in a lineage.) Non-dual Shaivism is, like many of the tantrik traditions, world embracing, ie. unlike Patanjali's classic yoga that saw reality as dualistic (Purusha (spirit) vs. Prakriti (nature)) where the world and the body were considered problematic and something to transcend (get away from), non-dualistic tantra sees everything, including the body, as a manifestation of the divine. One does not renounce the world but sees the opportunity for liberation in the world, through and in the body.

From the idea at Patanjali's time of ​​purusha and prakriti, one can see a historical shift to shiva (consciousness) and shakti (energy, the power of consciousness). From being considered non-divine and full of flaws (not to mention: prone to change…), nature is now seen as part of the divine. Everything that exists is one divine consciousness expressing itself as many forms.

I often hear people in the yoga world say that “yoga means union”, and that union is the goal of yoga - union of body and soul, or the yogi with the divine. The non-dual tantrik understanding is that everything is already yolked; everything is already seamlessly whole. There are no two; no separation to bridge. Shiva and shakti are in union; two aspects of the same. Inseparable like fire and the heat of fire. (For Patanjali, it was rather separation that was the goal of yoga; to free Purusha from mistaking itself for being Prakriti.)

Although the nondual tantrik view teachings, in my experience, have the power to transform the practitioners experience, they should not be seen as absolute Truth, but rather as maps of the terrain of consciousness. The tradition itself teaches that nothing that can be expressed in words is the complete or absolute Truth. There is a saying that, the teachings are like the flaming sticks used to kindle the yogic fire (sadhana), but that eventually the sticks themselves are consumed by the fire.