"So Who Needs Lower Tantra?"..
People often ask me, "If higher tantra is higher, why not just skip
lower tantra." A lot of students hear "higher" and think "better". They
figure the higher tantras are "more refined" or "more divine." So, why
not jump right to the higher tantras, if they deal more directly with
the Divine? Let's have a look...
Consider the 99th floor of the Empire State Building... Most would
agree that it has a "better view" than the bottom floor. And the 99th
floor is definitely "higher" than the bottom floor.
But you can't have the 99th floor without the ground floor. Take away
that ground floor, and you you've got no building. No structure. No
link between the earth and your beautiful view of the sky. No entrance
and no elevator up to the 99th floor.
You could think about that 99th floor as a concept, just like the
architect did before it was built, but you can't get in an elevator,
walk out, and *experience* the view out that 99th floor window. You
can only imagine, or fantasize. Without the bottom floor, there is no
elevator. There isn't even a building. Without the solid foundation
of the bottom floors, the view from the top floors is just an idea.
Just a concept. Just a fantasy.
Real Tantra is not about dreaming up concepts or spiritual fantasies.
It's about experiencing.
However, if you first use the lower tantras, and succeed in integrating
your primordial brain and body with your "thinking" self, then you can
begin to experience the fruits of the higher tantras.
Without that biological and subtle foundation from lower tantra, the
eleborate visualizations of the higher tantric practices become just
mental fantasies -- just mental masturbation.
Kundalini is the "juice" that animates the practices of the higher
tantras, and lets you experience both bliss and the exquisite
realization of the primordial nature of all things.
There is a much quoted saying in Tantrism:
"Without Sakti (shakti), Siva (shiva) is just a corpse."
Over-eager feminists like to interpret this in mere political terms,
and might miss it's more secret, internal meaning:
Sakti is Kundalini Sakti, the lower glands and the sacrum. Siva is the
pineal gland and the brain center. By re-linking them through
"Arousing kundalini" from the tailbone to the brain, Siva (awareness/
consciousness) is re-united with Sakti (animating energy and primordial
wisdom). This can take place in any body, female or male. It is
a-political. It is universal!
The corpse (corpus collosum?!!) is once again merged with the sacred
(Sacrum) and primal. The primal central nervous system is once again
fully integrated with the "thinking" (and easily tricked) modern
brain...
Through lower tantric practice you re-link (re-ligere) your brain
with
the rest of the central nervous system and endocrine system, so that
you experience meditative states rather than just intellectualize about
them. Only with kundalini sakti animating the practice does the dogma/
method/ technique (shiva) of the higher practice become animated by
sacral wisdom and primordial emptiness (Sakti).
"The Subtle Body connects this universe to the subtle ones. No object
or doctrine equals in importance the teaching of the Subtle Body - a
door opened towards Ultimate Freedom." - From the Kaula Tantra
When the subconcious, primordial brain, is kept separate from the
"rational" "thinking" brain, when the feminine and masculine are kept
segregated, we end up with sectarianism, dogma, and violence. This is
why real internal practice with authentic techniques is always more
important than parroting dry philosophy. Start practicing today!
For every student, there is a teacher.
Keep in touch!
Smile, breathe right, and keep your tongue up!
Your Friend,
Tao Semko of www.UmaaTantra.com
P.S.
You can safely learn and practice authentic tantric yogas in Umaa
Tantra's Tantric Inner Circle. You can read more about
the Tantric Inner Circle here:
http://www.UmaaTantra.com/tantric_inner_circle.html