Namasté

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Permalink Reply by Shannon Sweeney on August 28, 2012 at 5:21pm

So glad to see the movement is thriving! Namaste

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Permalink Reply by Rahasya on August 29, 2012 at 1:36am

Thanks, Sharon. Yes, delightfully.

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Permalink Reply by Rahasya on August 30, 2012 at 3:51pm

What a question-cluster :)

I try …

Tantra

short form: A spiritual path unusual in that it is not much interested in 'improvement'. It's bumper sticker is: Enlightenment this lifetime or bust." 

Longer answer at my school's website, advaittantra.com

Longer answer still – I have written a book, available as printed, e and audio at rockyhorrortantra.com

Shakti

I used the word referring to this woman, who's path has been to embody that particular energy. Changing her name (legally and all) a few years before she met me was part of that happening. Maybe her videos give you some idea beyond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti , see http://www.youtube.com/user/shaktimalan


Yogini  - a title. Sometimes short for 'yogini adept', meaning a practitioner. The particular accomplishments, capacity, understanding etc.implied by the title varyfrom tradition to tradition, and school to school.

In this school, a yogini adept uses specific (mostly touch) techniques. She teaches on the 'borrowed authority' of the school while she learns, through her sessions practice, mastery of masculine energy. 

Dakini - you didn't ask, but it belongs here. Again a title, and in his school, it means a teacher who teaches on her own authority and from her own experience. Her sessions work is absolutely responsive. Whatever her student's most immediate obstacle/resistance/avoidance to/of awareness is, typically, it will be immediately addressed, whatever that has to involve, and however it may look. Shakti's videos (above) and other Dakinis at my channel: http://www.youtube.com/advaitrahasya may help give an idea.

ISTA is an American school that arranges conferences, 4th South African one happens early december, Cape Town. http://sedonatemple.com/

Kundalini is an energy pattern in the body, very different from that of most people. The switching over to it happens sometimes painfully or dramatically, and it does not only happen to tantrikas. Ram Das had a particularly difficult one, and I have a Quaker friend who looked pretty close last time I saw him. It is an important thing, but it became fetishised out of all proportion a long time ago. 

It is also the new  euphemism for happy-ending massage. Mostly because recent harrassments and defilements of temples (particularly in Maricopa County where famously antiphilliac Bill Montgomery) have made it clear that the word 'tantra' will get you targeted for arrest.

Kundalini is also being favoured by the sex coach, therapist and sexual healer flavours of tantrikas for the same reason. Expect to see it used as branding, and expect lots of nonsense about kundalini being the 'next step' after tantra.

Kundalini awakening (the real thing) often involves fairly severe shaking. This has led to the shaking beginners experience in touch work (straight up nervous tension and release trembling) being called 'kundalini awakening'. 

Yantra and Mantra – ancient methods of not much value for most, these days. Even in traditional Hinduism, there is a view that other methods are appropriate to the current age.

battery dying on the laptop...deity wise, we are heavy on the experiential and light on the theology.

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Permalink Reply by Rahasya on August 31, 2012 at 12:13am

Sounds like what we call 'satori', meaning a brief glimpse into some aspect of the dharma - the deep truth. In this case, a taste of kundalini, very likely.

Clearing the resistances to experience/awareness at the chakras, kundalini, the 'gifts' or siddhis and healing happen on the path, but are not the core intent of Tantra. The core is the urge to transcendence in which the ego-mind is not suppressed, but used to support, accelerate the student's progression.

Tantra is: http://www.rockyhorrortantra.com/rhtab-intro/1-02%20RHTAB-C00-02-ta...

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Permalink Reply by Rahasya on September 2, 2012 at 5:33am

In general, 'ego' in the West referrs to some 'will to advantage' or that which strives to satisfy its survival/tribal/aesthetic concerns.

In the East, 'ego' is the illusion of 'you that finds itself thinking about your life' being the 'active principal' or 'doer' of life.

The truth is that existence keeps on happening. Moments arise, complete with the thoughts, the views of 'causes', the concerns about 'effects' and the mind's explanation of what it thinks it is doing.

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