Ring-a-ring-a-roses A pocket full of posies Atichoo, atichoo We all fall down…
The more I learn about mantra recitation the more I think of lullabies. I remember singing the ring-a-roses lullaby as a child; there was something hypnotically soothing about the simple poetry of the song. At the time it was completely nonsensical to me but years later someone told me that it actually referred to the Black Death.
Traditional tantric mantras are similar. Hypnotic, soothing and lyrical in their tone and rhythm, they appear almost nonsensical to the uninitiated listener. However, research suggests that many of the mantras used by traditional practitioners were cleverly crafted and imbued with esoteric meaning. The power of a mantra then isn’t simply in repeating the sound, it’s in understanding the hidden meaning beneath the sound.
The Tantras are pretty clear and conclusive on this: for a mantra to have power or significance the practitioner must be initiated into its meaning by an enlightened guru. This initiation had a dual purpose – not only did it convey signification of the mantra (and thereby a source of power to the practitioner) but it also served as a code, an identifying feature not only of tantric initiation but the specific lineage to which the practitioner was initiated, as well as the guru who initiated them.
This presents a problem to modern practitioners. Seeing as the traditional lineages were extinguished centuries ago there seems no possibility of being initiated into a genuine tantric mantra. This presents a further problem – this time an existential problem to Tantra itself. For most scholars, mantra repetition is a defining feature of tantric practice (along with initiation by a guru). How then can any form of genuine Tantra exist today?
Two alternatives have so far been provided. Firstly, practitioners of Kundalini Yoga (which is a form of Tantra Yoga, albeit limited in its scope) choose to chant selected mantras with little understanding even of the literal meaning of the sounds, let alone the codified meaning that lies beneath them. The Tantras themselves are generally scornful of this approach, but with a lack of alternatives this may well be the best (as in, most effective) approach towards mantra recitation. The chanted mantras undoubtedly possess some of the hypnotic lyricism that has the potential to aid tantric meditation.
The second available option is to ‘be your own guru’. This is the approach espoused within Neo-Tantra (i.e., the branch of Tantra that mostly consists of commercial providers of tantric sex therapy), and it’s not without merit. Whilst guru worship is a prevailing theme across the Tantras, there’s also a clear recognition that potential initiates and practitioners are capable of guiding themselves through thoughtful reflection and meditation.
It is possible then to ‘be your own guru’. But when it comes to mantra recitation it might be slightly less practical. The idea is to create your own mantra, with your own meaning, and those suggested in many of the Neo-Tantra workshops tend to represent little more than positive psychology, focusing on the repetition of self-affirming phrases. Again, this approach may be beneficial for many practitioners, but this does not represent the central tenet of Tantra, let alone mantra recitation. Tantra is designed to disassemble an ego-centric concept of self with a view to recognising the all-encompassing universal Self that sits at the core of your being. Self-affirmations are unlikely to achieve this in any meaningful way.
It may be then that modern Tantra needs to diverge from traditional Tantra, and accept a form of Tantra without mantra. But there is a third alternative!
One of the most revered tantric philosophers, Abhinavagupta, spoke of a special kind of mantra – a naturally occurring mantra; one we each possess without the need for anyone to initiate us into its use.
To understand the significance of this particular mantra it may first be worth reflecting on why Tantras place so much significance on mantras at all. The importance of mantras can be traced to origin stories. Before the universe could be brought into existence the divine being (God) had to first develop conscious self-awareness – after all, within Tantra, the universe is nothing more than divine self-expression. The Tantras discuss the ‘light of consciousness’; in other words, consciousness can be thought of as light-energy. Having become aware of Itself, God was then able to conceive the universe and in doing so began to name it. This naming involved the transformation of light-energy into sound-energy. Finally, the sound-energy contracted into physical form and manifested itself as the physical universe.
Importantly, tantric philosophers draw no distinction between these different forms of energy – none is more or less God than the other. Consciousness is no more revered than the dynamic energy that gives form to matter, and the matter itself is no less divine than the energy that conceived and formed it. Indeed, within Tantra each of these is a contraction of an original unknowable form, but none of the original is lost through the process of contraction – God exists in all things.
Mantras then, are the sound-energy (the Word) of God.
So, what is the naturally occurring mantra that requires no initiation from an enlightened guru? It is the sound of blissful pleasure that occurs spontaneously when we unite with the divine source Itself – the divinity within ourselves, within others and within everything we know or can ever know. It is none other than the sound of orgasm.
As with everything in Tantra, the sound itself is meaningless without meditative contemplation on what it actually signifies - the vocalisation of experienced non-duality. Having an enthusiastic orgasm is NOT mantra recitation. But it does mean that we can re-introduce mantras (or at least, one mantra) to our tantric practice, because we now have a mantra that we all know and can use.
So, if you want to use a mantra next time you’re meditating, my advice is to go all When Harry Met Sally and fake it until you make it!
Comments