What is Sadhana? A tantric view

[Guest guest]

I have come across two very interesting definitions of Sadhana and I

would like to share them with everybody. If you have found any other

definitions please post them as a reply to this thread, I think this

is interesting.

 

 

1. Sadhana: invocation of the dieties, part of Lamaist Buddhism

(source, somewhere in the world wide web)

 

 

2. "Sadhana is that which produces siddhi, it is the means, or

practice, by which the desired end may be attained, and consists in

the exercise and training of the body and psychic faculties, upon the

gradual perfection of which siddhi follows; the nature and degree of

which, again, depends upon the progress made towards the realization

of the atma, whos veiling vesture the body is. The means employed are

various, such as worship (puja), exterior or mental; shastric

learning; austerities (tapas), the pancha-tattva, mantra and so forth.

Sadhana takes on a special character, according to the end sought.

Thus sadhana for brahma-jnana, which consists in the acquisition of

internal control (shama) over buddhi, manas and ahangkara; external

control (dama) over the ten indriya, discrimination between the

transitory and the external, and renunciation both of the world and

heaven (svarga), is obviously different from that prescribed for, say,

the purposes of the lower magic. The sadhaka and sadhika are

respectively the man or woman who perform sadhana. They are, according

to their physical, mental, and moral qualities, divided into four

classes mridu, madhya, adhimatraka, and the highest adhimatrama, who

is qualified (adhikari) for all forms of yoga. In a similar way the

Kaula division of worshippers are divided into the prakritti, or

common Kaula following virachara, addicted to ritual practice, and

sadhana, with pancha-tattva; the madhyama-kaulika, or middling Kaula,

accomplishing the same Sadhana, but with a mind more turned towards

meditation, knowledge and samadhi; and the highest type of

Kaula(kaulikottama), who, having surpassed all ritualism, meditates

upon the Universal Self."

 

This is a small part of an ebook called Mahanirvana Tantra Translated

by Arthur E Avalon. If anyone wants to have it, just email me and I

will send it to you. oiokasti