Tantra for Artists: Shortcut to the Ultimate Experience
'Shiva Shakti Unity', digital yantra art, 12 x 12", @2010 Ma Nithyananda Udaysree
Shiva is Causeless Auspiciousness
The literal translation of the word ‘shiva’ is ’causeless auspiciousness’. Shakti is the supreme female principle, Cosmic Mother. Shiva and Shakti are here symbolically represented as a downward pointing and an upward pointing triangle. Shiva is the static upward pointing triangle representing Cosmic Consciousness. The dynamic downward pointing triangle stands for energy. The Shakti or Devi color in the Vedic tradition has always been red seen in the mostly red alankars or dresses Devi wears in Hindu and Vedic temples. Shiva’s color is white. Often we can see white flowers offered to him in Shiva temples. Shiva and Shakti merged look like a six-pointed star or the Star of David, a common symbol used in yantra art. Shiva Shakti are the male and female energies within anybody and everybody.
Significance of Vijnana Bhairava Tantra
Shiva is an enlightened master from India. The Shiva Sutras include the Vignana Bhairava Tantra, Guru Gita, Tiru Mandiram, and other teachings of Shiva in the form of techniques. Tantra literally means Technique. Tantra is an ancient tradition for enlightenment consisting of spiritual techniques including mantra, yantra, meditation and ritual worship. The Vignana Bhairava Tantra is the essence of the whole science of meditation. It contains 112 meditation techniques delivered by Lord Shiva to His consort Devi. These meditation techniques are powerful and universal and include techniques for all kinds of human beings with different personalities. of which five each are for our senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching. So there are actually only five meditation techniques in Tantra that refer to the energy of touch yet Tantra in the West is mostly synonymous with sex, a true misconception. You very well may be practicing one or the other meditation technique without knowing that it comes from the tantric tradition.
Looking or Visual Meditation Techniques for Artists
For artists I would like to explore some or all of the five techniques related to seeing, the looking or visual meditation techniques to go deeper into your core to connect with creativity and higher states of consciousness. Osho wrote The Book of Secrets in which you may read up on this.
The Book of Secrets: Keys to Love and Meditation
A phenominal book by Osho. An in-depth explanation of 112 meditation techniques as ancient as Lord Shiva himself. Let me quote an amazon.com review: “These techniques will not mention any religious ritual. No temple is needed, you are quite enough of a temple yourself. You are the lab; the whole experiment is to go on within you. This is not religion, this is science. No belief is needed. Only a daringness to experiment is enough; courage to experiment is enough.These 112 methods are for the whole of humanity – for all the ages that have passed, and for all the ages that have yet to come. I will go on describing each method from as many angles as possible. If you feel any affinity with it, play with it for three days. If you feel that it fits, that something clicks in you, continue it for three months. Life is a miracle. If you have not known its mystery, that only shows that you do not know the technique for how to approach it.” – Osho.
Shiva Sutras: Shortcut to the Ultimate Experience – to Enlightenment itself!
Teachings are the answers to the question “Why?”. Techniques are answers to the question “How?”. When we ask “Why pain?”, “Why suffering?”, there are multiple explanations, but no definite solution. The question “How?” takes you to the solution.
Shiva Sutras are answers given by Shiva to the question “How?”, not “Why?”, to Devi, his consort. Shiva Sutras are direct solutions to every conceivable type of man who has come and gone and is yet to come. They are solutions that take you beyond words, into a space, to discover yourself. Shiva Sutras are for those who are tired of words but want to experience the truth. They are shortcuts to the Ultimate Experience – to Enlightenment itself! Nithyananda speaks in length about these techniques and has released his Shiva Sutra Talks on CD.
The post on How to Get Clarity in Life and Art contains one such looking meditation technique from the Shiva Sutras. In future postings we will explore further looking or visual meditation techniques especially suitable for artists.
ART PRINT: The Shiva Shakti (Unity) Yantra is available as a Zazzle Art Print.
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As a Zen practitioner, when I read your description of Tantra I have always regarded is as an energy. Sexuality, I feel is the rawest form of this energy. In Zen, we use very little terminology or description as we just train our minds to be focused into the hara (lower abdomen region) and aspire to nothin-ness. As I read your post here about Tantra I can really see it as an experience of the energy often produced by sitting in zazen.
I love Osho’s decription, “No temple is needed, you are quite enough a temple yourself”. I agree, it is nothing to do with religion, by science. To me it is the alchemy of transferring base metal (the raw energy of the hara), into gold (spiritual realization).
I once heard that to keep asking the question “Why?” can drive us insane, but to keep asking the question “How?” or “What?” can drive us sane.
thanks, Derek, for your insightful comment. here, like we discussed earlier, again, are two paths leading to the same goal of enlightenment or void or nothingness…
yes, it is all science, all can be individually experienced. that is the beauty of meditating and being on the spiritual path. the more i learn and experience the more interesting and blissful it becomes.
and only once we come to the “How” question do we have developed a desire for wanting to experience that which we so far have only read about or used as an ego blowing discussion material for intellectual satisfaction only. once “How” enters we are willing to sit, meditate and explore sincerely. thanks for pointing that out!
hi udayshree
it is the energy treatment and imunomics both reconnected with the microcosmos that is the leading research in my scientific area. this 6 faced star is that of sanath kumara with 6 mithras sent to the entire world