The basic principles of tantrism. Body cult

To begin, summarize the previous section. So, magic has nothing to do with the subordination of a person to “supreme power” and the word “worship” is not appropriate to designate an incentive motive of magical actions. Objects of primitive cults act as such not because they are recognized as worthy of worship, but insofar as they are expected to receive certain benefits or fear some undesirable consequences in practical life.

From here, there are two obvious implications. First, by grasping the secrets of our body, we can thereby master the secrets of nature. Secondly, the origin of the universe is no more (and no less) mysterious than the birth of a child. Deha Tattva (the cult of the body) and the cosmogonic theory of Tantrism (the world arose as a result of sexual attraction - the Kama - and the mating of the male and female foundations) are nothing more than an elaborate formulation of these effects.

Let's start with the cult of the body. “What is here, that is, everywhere, and what is not here — there is nowhere else.” This position from the Visvasara Tantra forms the basis of the whole tantric teaching. All that is in the human body is also in the universe: the human body is a microcosm that replicates the macrocosm. Since the universe and the body are arranged according to the same principle and from the same material, and since the forces contained in them act in the same way and have a common nature, the body must also have what is the beginning, the cause of both the body and the universe.

All theoretical and practical efforts of the ancient ascetics (Sadhaks), whose only tool and subject of research was their own body, were focused specifically on the search and mastery of the Great Primary Cause.

And this power was found. It turned out that she sleeps in every human body at the base of the spine. He who awakens it and subordinates his power can become the owner of amazing abilities, the so-called Siddhas (“achievements”). Tantras mention eight great and thirty small Siddhas, among which there are such phenomena as the ability to levitate, walk on water, be transported at will to any place, become invisible, read other people's thoughts, etc.

However, having established control over the connection between the forces of the body and the universe and having acquired the ability to command the great elements of nature, that is, having acquired the Siddhi, a person, sooner or later, had to discover what remains to be exactly the same small and half-blind creature, for some reason abandoned in an infinite world. , for some reason, which for some reason, he can command ... He discovers that the Siddhi, leaving him in the traveled track of this world, moreover, riveting on it an obsessive sense of superiority, and thus involvement, solve any problems of meaning, purpose, destination fleeting existence of his "I", giving only fleeting physical benefits, as well as, at best, dubious happiness satisfied vanity.

But in search of power, leaving the benefits of this world, the best of the people went, and only the best of the best found it, and it is unlikely that, finding Siddhi, they could all agree that this was the goal of their aspirations. By deepening their mystical inner search, they were able to announce that the Siddhi was not the best way to use "the power that creates the worlds." So Tantrism from magic turned into Sadhana, “the way home”.

The core of tantric Sadhana continues to be the Deha Tattva, the cult of the human body, but its goal is no longer “supernatural abilities” as such; moreover, being by-products of advancement, they are defined as obstacles in the way. The goal of Tantric, like any other Sadhana, is Yoga, the expansion of consciousness, and the Tantrists believe that there is no better tool for achieving this goal than the human body. Therefore, the body constitutes a subject on which the attention of all Tantras is focused.

The tremendous importance attached by the tantrists to the human body caused a scornful attitude towards them from the whole "spiritual world." Indeed, from the point of view of common sense of spiritual orthodoxy, it is very difficult to imagine how the body as such can expand consciousness. Indeed, in the spiritual aspect, the body is traditionally regarded as a “vessel of sin”, “dungeon of the spirit”, at best, as its “temple”, “instrument”, etc., but always unequivocally: it is nothing more than an inanimate physical shell, driven by the soul or "life force"; and the only thing that this foul flesh is by its nature can contribute to the growth of the spirit is not to interfere with it. The tantric understanding of the “body-spirit” relationship does not fit into the framework of such familiar concepts, moreover, it is the opposite of them.

However, it should be recalled here that the tantric structure of thinking, opposed to these “habitual ideas”, is not at all something new and revolutionary; on the contrary, it is an echo of the world outlook of the distant era of matriarchy, world view, supplanted by patriarchal ideas about consciousness - the absolute. Continuing “implicitly” to develop in a closed circle of esoteric sects, this ancient world outlook and constitutes opposition to the concepts that have become “habitual”, “traditional”, “orthodox”, etc. with time.

So what is the “non-orthodoxy” of Tantrism, and why did Shankara call it “death like”? Perhaps the most clearly principled tantric position expressed by the druids, whose mistletoe was the symbol of the soul. Like mistletoe, SOUL PARASITES ON A TREE TREE BY LIVING IT WITH JUICES.

Trying to theoretically interpret the results of their experiments with the “forces of the body”, the tantrists came to the conclusion that only what the body showed him was given to consciousness. Consciousness can be changed by changing the points of its connection to the body.

These conclusions sound absolutely crazy to us, because our attitude to the body is usually quite “traditional”, that is, physiological: the body is a skeleton filled with insides, surrounded by muscles, covered with skin and, at best, surrounded by some kind of fields of uncertain nature. Occult ideas about the various “thinner” bodies hiding behind the facade of the “gross” only emphasize the physiology of his understanding of how spiritless SHELL or MEANS OF MOVEMENT. In contrast to this traditionally physiological, the understanding of the body of Tantras, and specifically of the gross, physical body, is deeply mystical.

Thus, the organs of the body on the physical "plane" are, as it were, the tops of icebergs formed by other "plans" of reality - manifestations, "exits" of other plans on the physical. In other words, tantrists viewed the body as the COLLECTION OF PHYSICAL PROJECTS of all the “plans” of reality.

Consciousness reflects the world through the body, that is, through the individual coloring of the subordination of the activity of the projections of various “plans” (associated with various functions of the body) presented in it. According to tantric ideas, in an ordinary person the structure of the perception of the world is determined mainly by the structural activity of the organs of the solar plexus zone. However, regardless of the "connection points", the human perception of the world is as unique as its body.

So, the body as a whole is an integrated physical manifestation of the activity of various “plans” of reality. Moreover, the physical body is the only place in the universe where all its levels are coherently represented in their hierarchical sequence. Hence the other, "unconventional" attitude to the body among the Tantrists. The body for them is “truly the best of creations.” Only by gaining a body and having learned the lessons of all levels of the “visible” presented here, the “seeing one” is able to comprehend his true nature.

“The body is the basis of all sciences. The Ganges and Yamuna flow here ... All the sacred abodes and pilgrimage sites, the Sun and the Moon are located here. I have never seen a place more worthy of worship and more blissful than my body. Yes, the most important thing for a person is his body. You will not be able to reach the world before you know its secrets. ”
Like an insane beggar who carries a bag full of jewels with him everywhere, we don’t guess to look into our body and don’t suspect the treasures hidden in it. The secret of the body lies in the fact that it is not exhausted by itself as a model of the world, a microcosm that copies the macrocosm, but serves as a representation of the worlds, and these representations are the same “ways out” to their plans as the body is to the physical plan.

Therefore, the second secret of the body is that it serves not only the representation of the worlds, but also the MEDIATOR BETWEEN WORLDS - the only point of both the physical and any other world through which you can come into contact with all levels of manifestation and become a conductor of their forces or having passed and defeated them, return "to Himself." But what is this, after all, for the “worlds”, the totality of which gives rise on the physical plane to such an amazing phenomenon as the human body?

Indeed, the consideration of the mystical theory of Deha Tattva quite naturally leads us to the necessity of considering cosmogony: the latter is internally connected with this theory and, in fact, inseparable from it, since the tantrism lacks the gap between the knowledge of nature and man, physics and psychology. Therefore, before moving on to tantric physiology (more precisely, “cosmophysiology” of representations of different levels of manifestation in the human body), that is, the experimental and theoretical basis of the psychophysiological Yogasadhani, it is necessary to understand the tantric cosmogony, or, rather, “psychogony” of beginnings that create man.