As I worked with him, homeopathic remedies emerged as good bets and patterns of relating took shape. He had left his wife because she was, he said, crazy. But from our tantric perspective he was clearly identified with an inner Masculine that was not merely sometimes in gentle disagreement with its Feminine counterpart, but who was at war with Her. She was, he seemed to feel, unreliable, not nurturing, and liable to irrational fits of pique. He wanted no part of Her.
From a tantric view, embodiment is the sphere of the feminine. She revels in the carnal connection with life on earth, and happily preoccupies herself with its minutiae. In fact, it is often convenient to think of our bodies as our own personal, standard issue piece of Gaia. It is our own little portable experiment in being living matter. She the Feminine in each of us, be we male, female, or some other variant of gender demands all this incessantly, and seems resistant to reason.
David wrote Her off.
Inside each of us the relationship between inner Masculine and Feminine may be tense and troubled. The counterparts may be cognizant of certain distortions of the masculine and feminine archetypes, and may be working to shed those, while our society as a whole offers twisted and tortured versions of Masculine and Feminine that are far worse. That is not to say that such acculturation is surprising.
In order to accommodate the institutions and pressures of the world we live in, most of us, women and men, identify predominantly with the sort of workaholic Masculine that ruled David. And, like David, this leads us to neglect our bodies. We treat them as irrational pests that are best ignored.
Medicine, meanwhile, stays busy chasing its tail: Yet the alertness and insight necessary to do so is blurred and obfuscated by the compromise of our bodily functions—most notably the nervous system. Though Tantra is a path of radical experimentation and liberating knowledge of the self, it is an embodied path. The instrument of our journey along this path is the body. If it is not clear, vital, and incisive, we will falter as tantrikas—hence the critical role of working with health. Without that any spiritual path, especially Tantra, will be to a great extent blocked.
Lewis was a case in point.
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He had no time for pampering his body. He ate whatever was at hand and sat most of the time at this desk, where books and papers were piled precariously all around. Though he was an advanced and dedicated student of tantric Buddhism, his progress was limited by the breakdowns in his body. While his Lama exemplified radiant health, Lewis tried to emulate him through rigid schedules and long hours of poring over his books. He was on an even dozen strong pharmaceutical medications, not to mention lists of herbs and supplements. Most of his symptoms were worse on the left side of his body.
When I explained that the left side is the Feminine, and that he was neglecting Her, he smiled.
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When that began to make sense to him, I encouraged him to take time, relax, be with his body and ask it—ask Her—what She wanted, then give Her, his feminine, in this case Her physical, corporeal aspect, what she needed. It was important to work with his body, with Her. It—She—needed to feel his concern and attentiveness. You may not have had time for Her, but She had better be on the job, keeping the house, when you decided to show up.
At our next session, Lewis was beginning to see how his relationship to his body was like that of an absent, workaholic husband.
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Of course, Lewis is not unique. Nor is this problem limited to men. Women suffer similarly, if not as severely generally speaking. Their Masculine reflects the same planetary pattern. But in this holographic complex, issues with the body and physical health hold a unique place. We are talking about the survival of the individual when we begin to consider the diseases that can supervene and threaten life itself. This is the rich and fetid territory of the Root Chakra—where the fear of annihilation dwells.
It has always intrigued me that the cultures of the East, by and large, take more common sense care of their bodies, and despite what often amounts to food shortages and inadequate public hygiene, remain surprisingly healthy—and this in the context of a cosmology that views the body as a mere temporary vehicle, to be cast off when worn out.
Meanwhile, in the West, the body is overstuffed, over drugged, and over stressed, despite the fact that many in this part of the world view their bodies as the sum total of their existence, and believe that when it expires, they will cease to be, their consciousness extinguished with their physiological processes. Is this some macabre dance with annihilation? Is it a desperate attempt to assert autonomy by taking charge of ones own destruction? He in his arrogant exploitation of Her, projects his own contempt and indifference and thus assumes She feels that for him. He fears She will turn on him.
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Preoccupation with fear—actually terror is a more accurate term—and the desperately denied conviction that he is ultimately to be annihilated 4 prevent him from being open to Her playful spontaneous creations, and the limitless love and nurturance She offers. After this tantric analysis of our relationship to our bodies, let us look at a tantric solution to the disastrous situation with our health that has resulted from it. The basic challenge is to uncover our own pure Her—the essential, unsullied version of our Feminine—She who nurtures us, and who guides our actions, decisions and way of living.
Or, at least, potentially guides us.
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To find that deeper, inherently powerful and loving aspect of ourselves, of the Universe as present within us, we must also uncover our own pure Masculine. That will usually be necessary since most of us are firmly positioned in the Masculine as we relate to our bodies. We have identified with Him and relate to Her through Him. This is where the wisdom of the East serves us better.
It provides us with a way of proceeding that is not constricted to the linear, not given to reflexive analysis - a way of thinking that is larger of scope, friendly or to the synthetic, unruffled by contradictions that exist on the level of mechanistic logic. An openness to the possibility that something can be both true and not true is what has come to be called "fuzzy logic," And it is the harnessing of this peculiarity of Eastern thought that is said to have enabled Japanese engineers to create a train that glides so silently by at such breathtaking speeds, while our western equivalents clickety-clack along with their ancient Newtonian designs.
Though the language and concepts of this book are tantric, there are many tradition - Eastern and others, that also deal cogently with the transformation. Tantra however is unique in several ways that make it especial suitable for the task at hand hand. Easton Mountain's Mission Statement describes us as "a force for positive change in the world.
Our thanks to Rudy for permission to publish this material. Email List Volunteer Donate. Looking East for Help This is where the wisdom of the East serves us better.
An openness to the possibility that something can be both true and not true is what has come to be called "fuzzy logic," And it is the harnessing of this peculiarity of Eastern thought that is said to have enabled Japanese engineers to create a train that glides so silently by at such breathtaking speeds, while our western equivalents clickety-clack along with their ancient Newtonian designs Why Tantra? It has survived relatively intact in its richness and detail for well over a thousand years.
Second, Tantra has served as a sort of counter cultural crossroads receiving input from sources as varied as tribal shamanistic practices throughout South Asia to the lofty philosophies of Kashmiri Shaivists. Third, Tantra paints itself on a huge canvas: It deals with the relation of human with the Infinite.