Womb yoga is a women’s yoga practice developed in the UK from the observation that male bodies and experiences are privileged in mainstream yoga. Based on modern postural yoga, womb yoga integrates ...the philosophy and mythology of śakta tantra in reference to scholarly texts and reinterprets tantric traditions in line with Anglo-American Goddess spirituality. Through body practice, chanting, visualization, and ritual, female cyclic experiences and the different stages of women’s lives are approached as gateways to the divine and as opportunities for spiritual empowerment. In addition, by offering a seasonal understanding of the menstrual cycle and establishing energetic resonances between natural elements and the body, womb yoga fosters experiences of cosmic connection and communion. The study is based on ethnographic research, combining participant observation and in-depth interviews. It details the practice of womb yoga and the experiences it engenders among participants, and discusses its feminist potential.
The miḻāvu is a huge pot drum that was, until a few decades ago, exclusively associated with Kūtiyāṭṭaṃ Sanskrit theater. Its history, language, and repertoire have been fashioned upon the ...performance of Kūtiyāṭṭaṃ dramas enacted in Brahmanical temples of Kerala for the exclusive benefit of a privileged elite. During several centuries of association with these temples where rituals were performed according to Tantric procedures, Kūtiyāṭṭaṃ was heavily charged with ritual elements. Due to these audience restrictions, Kūtiyāṭṭaṃ remained almost unknown to the rest of the world until the 1960s, when radical political changes produced a revolution in the social organization of Kerala that had a significant impact on this theatrical art form and temple arts in general. A new phase in the history and evolution of the art started in 1965, when a department of Kūtiyāṭṭaṃ was introduced at the dance and theater academy Kerala Kalamandalam. There the art of Kūtiyāṭṭaṃ was redefined and refined and then recognized, in 2001, as a World Intangible Cutlural Heritage by UNESCO. Today, Kūtiyāṭṭaṃ is a highly complex art form that includes elements and procedures inherited from the ancient Sanskrit theatrical tradition—adjusted to meet and suit the needs and likes of contemporary audiences—as well as elaborated rituals maintained with unquestioning respect. In fact, the sequence of ritual music and dance compositions (puṟappāṭu) introducing dramas is generally considered meaningless by contemporary performers, and almost none of them acknowledge the contribution of Kerala Tantric tradition to it. Contrasting with the performers’ view, the analysis of musical and visual content of the ritual compositions of the miḻāvu shows that they are heavily imbued with Tantric concepts. On the basis of the cluster of ideas, symbols, stories, and rites that have been associated in the Brahmanical temple tradition of Kerala with the miḻāvu and its ritual compositions as well as with the ritual songs and dances preceding the drama, this essay suggests a novel interpretation of the entire puṟappāṭu sequence, arguing that it is a symbolical re-enactment of a sonic cosmology according to Tantric theories.
The present paper tries to unearth new insights for understanding the importance of Kamakhya. While doing so, significant emphasis has been laid on empirical research methods. The findings have been ...put in tune with the existing historical narratives to bring out crucial points regarding the practices of worship of the goddess at the Kamakhya temple. Through this process the paper seeks to understand the critical connection of tantra to the ancient land of Kamarupa. Secondly, it looks into the indigenous ingredients of modes of worship that had shaped this unique goddess and her cult. Thirdly, the paper traces the rich history of pilgrimage to the Kamakhya pith, though the entire historical process of pilgrimage is hard to determine, at least from the last two years of oral records have been consulted, to draw a linkage with the present day impact of the temple on the pilgrims and the tourists. Lastly, but not the least, the temple has been discussed as a geographical site of importance rather than a religious or historical site. As for the method applied, unstructured interview was conducted keeping the objectives of the study in consideration. The interviewees were purposively selected keeping in view the fact that they are residing in Nilaćala hills for generations together or actively involved in temple administration. The objective was to probe information regarding geo-heritage of the temple hitherto unknown. Our engagement with the study has enabled us to uncover the untold and unheard narratives. Foremost, we found that the very hill where the temple is situated has been associated with development of a community of dwellers, commonly referred to as Pandas, belonging primarily to Brahmin caste. Their history of migration, their modes of livelihood and their association with the temple and the deity is found to be integral to the heritage of the site. Coming to the cult we found that both Vedic and Tantric modes are used for the worship. There is a mystical side to the deity which is often linked with the practice of tantra and her being the goddess of fertility. And, most importantly we found the traditions of the community living on the Nīlācala, the modes of worship of the deity and also of pilgrimage, have gone through certain changes while adapting to new socio-cultural practices. Yet, there are certain aspects which are still intact and carefully maintained for ages now.
This thesis is an attempt to understand, from both philological and metaphysical perspectives, an important 10th-century Tibetan Buddhist text on contemplation, the bSam-gtan mig-sgron by gNubs-chen ...Sangs-rgyas ye-shes (b ca 844). This text is a seminal source for the study of the various meditative currents that were transmitted to Tibet from India and China during the early dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet. It is among the earliest Tibetan doxographies and is one of the first treatises to...
Cuando se abre la amplitud de la respiración acelerada, la identidad personal puede sentirse como incontenible y desatada. La identidad personal es apertura experiencial... apertura previa a la ...mente. Dasein para usar terminología heideggeriana. Lo que suele haber es un entrelazamiento de respiración y respiración aeróbica, entrelazamiento de respiración y qi, entrelazamiento de respiración y Shakti, respiración y energía primordial. La respiración aeróbica nos inspira y nos respira. En el fondo, la energía de esta respiración aeróbica es luz. La iluminación está formando formas de luz como energía y la luz se convierte en energía y se convierte en respiración aeróbica. El tantra está íntimamente relacionado con este sutil fenómeno de la respiración aeróbica.Abstract When the Spaceousness of the breathless breath opens, who-ness can be felt as uncontained and unbound. Who-ness is experiential openness…openness prior to mind. Dasein to use Heideggarian language. Most often there is this intertwining of breath and respiration, intertwining of breath and qi, intertwining of breath and Shakti, breath and primordial energy. Respiration inspires us and respirates us. Utimately, this energy of respiration is light. Illumination is forming forms of light as energy and the light becoming energy becoming respiration. Tantra is intimately connected to this subtle phenomena of respiration.
This article reviews the unfolding of the transcendental phenomenological reduction process and reviews the unfolding of the ontological phenomenological reduction process as articulated by Heidegger ...and contemporary ontological phenomenology. It also reviews the phenomenological reduction in the light of contemporary Existential Phenomenology. Our discussion is elaborated in light of the two ways of knowing: the knowing of mind knowing phenomena and the knowing of awareness knowing Being integrating it with the Eastern philosophical tradition of Tibetan Dzogchen and vajrayāna –tantric– Buddhism. The focus has been on the power of the intertwining of these ontic-ontological capacities.
Como parte de una revisión más amplia de la popularidad que el yoga de Patañjali (circa siglo IV e.c.) ha adquirido en la época moderna en detrimento de la riqueza y variedad del fenómeno del yoga en ...la India clásica, este artículo investiga la crítica a Patañjali articulada en diversas fuentes śaivas tántricas. En este contexto, se revisa primero el yoga de los ascetas transgresores pāśupatas vis a vis el yoga patañjaliano. Luego, se exponen aspectos centrales de la cosmovisión tántrica que son útiles para comprender la divergencia con el modelo de Patañjali. Por último, se analiza la crítica explícita a Patañjali que aparece en pasajes de la obra de Abhinavagupta (siglo X), el gran filósofo del tantra.
Se han identificado varios elementos tántricos śivaitas en el Yogavāsiṣṭha, pero se ha escrito poco sobre el papel del despertar de la kuṇḍalinī en relación con la noción de liberación en vida ...(jīvanmukti) de este texto. La historia de Cūḍālā y Śikhidhvaja es relevante para los estudios tántricos no solo porque incluye una de las pocas descripciones dentro de la literatura sánscrita de una experiencia de kuṇḍalinī perteneciente explícitamente a una mujer, pero también porque ofrece elementos clave de comparación entre experiencias de iluminación: una que incluye el despertar de la kuṇḍalinī (Cūḍālā) y otra sin ella (Śikhidhvaja). Este artículo compara la experiencia de iluminación de Cūḍālā con la de Śikhidhvaja para comprender qué papel juega el despertar de la kuṇḍalinī en la búsqueda de la liberación.
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