to those of you who know about it what is your opinions on the
subject... do not post if you know nothing about it lol

You'll need a good teacher if you want to follow that path. Acceptance
of worldly sensation as a component of nirvana. Buddhism already has
redeeming characteristics and acceptance of life nature is a nice
quality I think.

I don’t think you’re going to find too many people on this site who know
much about Tantric Buddhism. I’m somewhat familiar with Buddhism, at
least on a essential basis, and I’m also familiar with the basis of
Tantric Sex, so I can imagine what the goal of combining them would be.
I used to practice Yoga myself years ago which had many parallels with
the essence of Buddhism. I didn’t practice Yoga as a ‘religion’ but
rather as a method of reaching a state of mindful enlightenment. In any
case, I could certainly see where Tantric sex applied in a meditative
state could accelerate (or deepen) the experiences. However, it would
seem to me that the partners who practice this would both need to be of
the same spiritual mindset.

Westerners (particularly Christians) have huge egotistical (and even
sinful) associations with any act of sex. So I just can’t imagine them
in general accepting any sexually-related spirituality. It’s too far
removed from the Christian mindset in general.

In any case, I’m glad that you sparked me to look up a few sites on
Tantric Buddhism because it led me to find the following ‘definition’ of
Scientific Pantheism. I wasn’t even aware of Scientific Pantheism, yet
it is extremely in line with how I believe. I think it’s really amazing
that I came up with Scientific Pantheism entirely on my own. I mean,
how many people could come up with Christianity on their own? Like
absolutely NONE. That would be impossible because Christianity is
entirely dependent on it’s doctrine without the doctrine no one would
ever dream up all those stories on their own.

I’ll share the definition of Scientific Pantheism since I have it handy.
(not mean to highjack your thread by the way) I think the last
statement is obviously true since I came to these very same conclusions
not even realizing that there was such a things as Scientific Pantheism.

Scientific Pantheism
is the belief that the universe and nature are divine.
It fuses religion and science, and concern for humans with concern for
nature.
It provides the most realistic concept of life after death,
and the most solid basis for environmental ethics.
It is a religion that requires no faith other than common sense,
no revelation other than open eyes and a mind open to evidence,
no guru other than your own self.

well the basic beliefs from my understand of the topic, is basically
tantric buddhism is a form of buddhism that goes against the norms. It
is considered to be the " fast path" In this order they eat and indulge
in fish, meat, wine, sex, and certain grains.. my understanding of it
leads to presume that it awakens the bodies energies ( hindu) and then
in buddhism it allows you to escape the samsara realm by going out of
the norm.. i guess. thats how i interpret it .. i don't know if i
believe it i've practiced yoga as well, and while i never had any
mystical experiences i did have one session when we practiced kundalini
yoga where it was much more face past, and we also practiced chants..
which to my surprised i really enjoyed because of the vibrations
created.. i don't know if thats coming out correctly lol.. but
anyhoooos! i'm not sure if im convinced of the practice but i do know
people who get into these posistions and can stay for the " advance "
time must be putting themselves into another state of mind.. aka i
believe meditation has power...

I’ve been in the white light via Yoga meditation so I’m fully aware of
its potential.

I never mastered it well enough to remain in that state for extended
periods of time. But I do know that it’s precisely the same type of
thing that many people associate with NDE’s. It’s an intuitive
knowledge of your own immortality not as a physical being but as a pure
spirit.

I was satisfied with my taste of it. I’m a ‘Que Sara Sara’ type of
person. I don’t need to know all the details. It was enough for me
just to know that I’m immortal. I’ll pass on to that existence soon
enough. Now I’m just happy living this life.

This is really the essence of Buddhism I think. Once a person becomes
enlightened they aren’t supposed to dwell on it, they are supposed to
just realize that they are truly spiritual and get on with their lives.
I believe that this is what Buddha actually did with his life wasn’t it?
He became enlightened and then went out and got drunk and partied down.
(ha ha)

Maybe I have that wrong, but I swear I heard that somewhere along the
way.

Chi Quong, has components of tantra within it...

although, one cannot 'leap frog' ahead to that point of
understanding...it is a progression, of opening points , or chakras, and
allowing, the chi, the life force, energy to flow unrestricted within
and through the body.

As everything is connected, so has the chakras, and sexuality, is a part
of the chi.

With all things though, without balance, there is imbalance, and to
focus on only the aspect of the life energy, (ie: sexual gratification),
is to throw out of balance the rest.


Being mindful, of how one energisies, and to work with any blockages of
chi, is to support the body's healing, and to maximise one's life force.

Tantra plays a part in assisting with clearing these blockages,
especially if they are sexually related.

This is not concrete truth...this is my perception, of tantra..and only
one tiny sliver of what may be invloved, and how tantra is utilised.

No experience here with tantric buddism persay...but experimenting with
meditation going back to the 70's...first with the Rosicrusians (AMORC)
and then being intitiated into transcendental meditation...have had one
definite OBE & other experiences that I have a hard time assigning
definitions to..
Had a girlfriend a few yrs ago who was involved in wiccan/pagan
philosophies and she & I would experiment with chakra's and kundalini
energies...mostly thru systematic movements of the hands of one over the
other..to stir up the energy...finding cold & hot spots etc...but always
going thru the chakras in sequence to keep balance to the experience...

interesting that 2 years ago I went to a psychic and had my aura
photographed and a reading
done from it...she insisted that I should be practicing healing energy
...because that was the focus of my energy...the rest of the reading
knocked me out of my chair..

sorry..a little off your topic

ahh the spiritual part is what interest me a lot though davinci i love
heraing other peoples spiritual/ mystical experiences they are very
interesting to contemplate and

lol! no siddartha did not go party after he became buddha!! lol he took
on disciples and allowed a nunnery even though he didn't want it.. and
spread the good word... lol until he died .. in very speculatory ways
lol the myth says that he dies because he eats poison even though he
knew it was poisoned he didn't want to offend his host so he ate..
atleast that part of the version that i heard :P but there are many out
there

when my father died our family went thru a major spiritual adventure
that we all
have trouble talking about today..at the time it was as if we were
"tranced"...I
have no doubts about the spirtual nature of mankind...
I dont buy into organized religion...but my belief is based on many
years of reading
and of course many "bizarre" experiences...(nothing to do with drugs by
the way)..

fascinating subjects...but I do think all practices that have meditation
as a base
has roots way back in man's earliest recollections...long before
christianity..

I am a Pentecostal Christian nothing else and this is what Tantric
Buddhism is described as, I'm American and always will be this is not
for me:

At first sight nothing seems more alien to the oldest form of Buddhism,
Theravada, than Tantric Buddhism. Where Theravada urges us to reflect on
the repulsiveness of the body, Tantric Buddhism tells us to revere it as
a temple and to indulge its most sensual impulses. Theravada preaches
the renunciation of all desires: Tantric Buddhism their
over-fulfillment.

These are very real and significant differences. If we regard nirvana as
an ultimate reality which is revered as virtually divine, then most
Mahayana schools of Buddhism are pantheisms of the world-rejecting and
world-denying varieties (see Varieties of Pantheism). Tantric Buddhism
is a pantheism of the world-accepting variety which sees nirvana in the
midst of sense-phenomena.

Tantric Buddhism also laid great emphasis on mantras (incantations), on
mudras (symbolic gestures) and on mandalas (symbolic diagrams of deities
and cosmic forces), as well as on magic and a multiplicity of deities.

Yet it has two major points in common with its parent.

The first is that it aims at the abandonment or transcendence of the
self. Once again, its favoured method - the ecstasy of ritual sexual
intercourse and orgasm - is quite foreign to Theravada Buddhism. The
Buddha scolded his pupil Ananda for giving in to female attractions.

The sexual aspect of Tantric Buddhism has attracted a great deal of
attention, sometimes puritanical, sometimes prurient. Some of the
Tantric sutras, such as the Guhyasamaja-tantra, describe elaborate
rituals for group orgies. Many scholars claim that these passages are
not to be taken literally. They are said to be symbolic of the union of
wisdom (symbolized by the female) and means (the male).

However, some groups did practise the rituals literally and in the
flesh. These are likely to have been primarily males of the higher
classes, who could buy lower-caste women or high-class prostitutes to do
what they liked with, or landless castes, who had no property to pass
on, and for whom female virginity was less critical.

Tantric Buddhism shares another factor with many schools of Mahayana
Buddhism. It claims that the existence of the physical world is
illusory, and therefore there is no difference between samsara (the
world of transmigration and shifting appearances) and nirvana.

If this is true, then all we need to be liberated is to realize it. As
long as we do so, it makes no difference how we act. We can rape,
murder, commit incest - as some of the more extreme Tantric texts
encourage - and we will remain undefiled by the world of illusion. In
this amoral position Tantric teachings resembled those of the Nicolaitan
Gnostics and the Brethren of the Free Spirit.

Tantric sex rituals were elaborate. In the chakrapuja between eight and
forty eight male and female celebrants gather and take cannabis. The
priest anoints and has intercourse with a nude young girl, retaining his
semen for the congregation to drink. Feasting and drinking follow, and
the ceremony ends in ritual copulation accompanied by reciting of
mantras. The purpose (allegedly) is not to have a good time, but to use
sexual union and orgasm as a way to extinction of the self and fusion
with the underlying reality and unity.

Tantric Buddhism probably began around 300 AD as an esoteric development
among small circles of initiates, passed down from guru to pupil. It
gathered momentum after 600 AD, and was espoused by the rulers of a
kingdom known as Uddyana (possibly around Peshawar in modern Pakistan)
and by the Pala dynasty in Bengal (750-1150). It was largely suppressed
during the Moghul period.

The quotations are from the Treasury of Songs by Saraha, written in the
eleventh or twelfth century AD, in Edward Conze et al eds, Buddhist
Texts through the Ages, Harper Torchbooks, 1964.

The additional passages are from the seventh century
Cittavisuddhiprakarana, of Aryadeva, cited in W. T. de Bary, The
Buddhist Tradition, Vintage Books, 1972.