Yoga and Tantra: An Introduction to the Art of Life

There is a well known story about six blind men who went to see an elephant. Each man touched a different part of the animal and came to a different conclusion about what an elephant was. One touched the leg and said that an elephant was like a pillar. Another touched the trunk and described it as a snake. Someone else touched the ear and said it was like a fan. Each man was describing something he had genuinely experienced, but none of them had experienced the whole elephant.

In many ways, our understanding of spiritual traditions has developed in a similar manner. We encounter a particular teaching, a particular teacher, a particular book or a particular practice and then begin to believe that the part we have understood represents the whole. Over time, the original experience behind a spiritual tradition can become covered by interpretations, opinions and intellectual systems. What was once a living science becomes something that is discussed, classified and explained, sometimes without being experienced.

This is particularly true when we speak about Yoga and Tantra. Both words are now used very freely, often without much understanding of what they originally meant. Yoga is sometimes reduced to physical postures, while Tantra is frequently misunderstood as something concerned primarily with sexuality. Neither description comes close to the depth of these traditions.

To understand Yoga and Tantra, we have to look beyond the modern use of the words and return to the fundamental questions they address. What is consciousness? Why do we experience ourselves as separate from the rest of existence? Why does the mind create conflict, anxiety and dissatisfaction? And is it possible to experience life from a perspective that is not limited by our ordinary perception?

The experience of duality

Our ordinary experience is based upon duality. We see ourselves as one thing and the world as something separate from us. We see pleasure and pain, success and failure, attraction and rejection, good and bad, myself and others. The mind constantly divides experience into opposing categories, and from these divisions we create our understanding of life.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the mind functioning in this way. Discrimination and distinction are necessary for ordinary life. The problem begins when we become completely identified with this limited way of seeing. We then begin to experience every difference as a conflict and every uncertainty as a problem that must immediately be resolved.

A large part of human dissatisfaction comes from this constant movement between opposites. We want one thing and do not want another. We are attracted to something and afraid of losing it. We reject what we dislike and try to hold on to what we enjoy. The mind moves continuously between these poles, and because circumstances are always changing, it rarely finds lasting contentment.

Yoga begins with a different possibility.

The Sanskrit word Yoga comes from the root yuj, meaning to join, yoke or unite. Traditionally, Yoga is concerned with the movement from fragmentation towards wholeness. It is not simply about joining two objects together. It is about discovering what lies beneath the divisions through which we normally experience ourselves and the world.

This is why Yoga cannot be reduced to asana. Physical practice is valuable and, when approached traditionally, can prepare the body and mind for deeper practices. Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana and Dhyana take the practitioner progressively into a subtler understanding of the mind and consciousness. The purpose is not simply to acquire unusual experiences or become better at meditation. The purpose is to know oneself more completely.

Yoga and the search for wholeness

When we begin to practise Yoga sincerely, we may first notice the body. We become aware of tension, breathing patterns, habits and physical limitations. As practice deepens, we begin to notice the mind. We see how thoughts arise, how emotions influence perception and how easily the mind becomes caught in its own patterns.

Eventually, the practitioner begins to observe something even more fundamental: the awareness in which all of these experiences take place.

This movement from the gross towards the subtle is central to traditional Yoga. The body is not rejected, nor is the mind treated as an enemy. Instead, they become objects of understanding. Through practice we begin to recognise that we are not limited to every thought that passes through the mind or every emotion that arises within us.

This is where Yoga becomes a science of experience rather than merely a philosophy.

Yet even here there is a danger. We can become attached to the idea of Yoga itself. We can collect teachings, read books, discuss philosophy and become convinced that we understand something simply because we can explain it. But intellectual knowledge and direct experience are not the same thing.

A person can know everything about meditation and never meditate. Someone can speak beautifully about consciousness and still remain completely identified with the movements of the mind. Spiritual knowledge has to become lived knowledge.

Beyond the idea of Samadhi

In the classical Yoga tradition, Samadhi represents a profound transformation in the relationship between awareness and the objects of experience. Patanjali describes different forms of Samadhi and provides a sophisticated framework for understanding the refinement of consciousness.

But even the idea of Samadhi can become another concept that we use to create separation. We imagine Samadhi as a final destination and ourselves as travellers trying to reach it. We create another duality between the person who is seeking and the state that is being sought.

The deeper purpose of Yoga is not simply to acquire a particular experience. It is to see clearly.

When perception changes, our relationship with ourselves, with other people and with existence also changes. The practitioner begins to recognise that the divisions created by the ordinary mind do not necessarily represent the whole of reality.

This brings us towards Tantra.

What is Tantra?

The word Tantra is traditionally understood through the roots tan, meaning to expand or extend, and trai, associated with liberation or protection. Tantra therefore points towards an expansion of consciousness and liberation through that expansion.

Tantra begins from a very different attitude towards life from the one that is sometimes associated with renunciation. Instead of regarding the world as something that has to be rejected in order to discover the spirit, Tantra recognises the possibility of discovering consciousness through life itself.

This does not mean indulgence. Tantra is not permission to follow every desire simply because it exists. In fact, genuine Tantric practice requires discipline, awareness and a profound understanding of energy and mind.

One of the fundamental Tantric understandings is expressed through the relationship between Shiva and Shakti. Shiva represents consciousness, while Shakti represents the dynamic power through which consciousness expresses itself. The two are not ultimately separate. Consciousness and its power of manifestation belong to one reality.

Everything we experience is therefore worthy of investigation. The body, breath, senses, emotions, thoughts, relationships and the world around us can all become part of the process of understanding consciousness.

This is one of the reasons Tantra has always been a practical tradition. It is not merely asking us to believe in a philosophy. It asks us to discover the truth of the teaching through experience.