Читать книгу Tantric Sex: Making love last - Cassandra Lorius - Страница 18

Seed syllables, which create the appropriate spiritual intention:

Aim	seed syllable identifying self with teacher
Hrim	seed syllable of shakti
Klim	seed of desire
Krim	seed of union
Shrim	seed of delight
Trim	seed of fire
Strim	seed of peace
Hlim	seed of protection

Another series of sacred sounds, associated with the chakras:

Lam	base chakra (muladhara)
Vam	sacrum (svadhisthana)
Ram	solar plexus (manipura)
Yam	heart chakra (anahata)
Ham	throat chakra (vissudha)
Om	brow chakra (ajna)

Mandala is Sanskrit for circle. It describes the outdoor earthen platform used for rituals, as well as being a generic term for a ritual space, and a gathering of yogis. Mandala also refers to the yoni in Tantric usage, which means an enclosed sacred space as well as the female genitals.

Mandalas are used for the ritual in which a spiritual teacher assigns a mantra (sacred sound) to her or his student. Traditionally, the teacher designs a mandala with four gates in each direction, made with coloured powders. The teacher invests the mandala with sacred power through purification practices, mantra recitation, and the visualization of deities inside the mandala. Within this space the student receives his spiritual instruction about which mantras to use for invoking deities. Traditionally, the reciting of mantras is thought to be worthless without having had some sort of initiation ritual to empower the power word.

Yantras are more simple geometric designs, which represent the energies of a particular deity. They are drawn out on the ground in sand or flour, or drawn on paper or wood, or engraved into metal. Geometric symbols such as squares or triangles are drawn within four gates surrounded by a circle of lotus petals. The dot in the centre is called a bindu, or energy spot. It represents the matrix of creation, which is the source of the yantra’s power.

Yantras and mandalas are visual representations of inner and outer energy processes in geometric form. They are used in meditation to help the meditator align themselves with appropriate energy flows.

The famous shri yantra, used on the cover of this book, is dedicated to a form of the goddess, Tripura Sundari. The design is made of five downward pointing triangles, which represent Shakti energy, and four upward pointing triangles, which symbolize Shiva energy. Where they intersect they form 43 small triangles, or yonis. This is encircled by 29 mother deities, then another sixteen. Another circle of 16 lunar energies surrounds these, then sixteen lotus petals, symbol of transformation, containing more deities. The central energy point or bindu, represents Shakti power, which is the locus of bliss.

Ritual sexual postures are also called yantras, because they create an energy field through the different energy centres in the body. They unite the energy centres of one body with the energy centres of the partner.

Mudra usually refers to a ritual gesture: a gesture using the hands which invokes the presence of a deity. It also refers to the toasted kidney beans that are used as an aphrodisiac in Tantric rituals, and in Tantric Buddhism actually refers to the female partner in couple rituals (maithuna).

Mudras are thought of as seals. They help the practitioner identify with the deity and then seal those energies in the body. The ‘yoni-mudra’ is a classic gesture for the goddess, in which the fingers are interlaced with each other. There are seals for producing amrita, the ambrosial nectar of bliss, and others for enhancing meditation states. For instance, the ‘seal of wisdom’ is used while sitting in the ‘lotus’ or ‘hero’ posture for meditation, to focus and concentrate meditation.