The Ascent to the Godhead - Part 7

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Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 6 with:

 

(P.192) " The final state is 'samadhi', when one goes beyond. At this stage one

becomes what one contemplates. First of all one concentrates on an object and

the mind fixes on that. The object may be external, it may be interior, it may

be God, and finally the mind is united with that object. In 'samadhi' there is

no longer a separation between the mind and what it contemplates. One emerges in

the object of meditation. In the final stage the knower, the knowing and the

thing known become one. It is a state of non-duality where one discovers the

ultimate oneness. But all this is technique, a method of reaching that oneness.

The danger of it is that it may be thought to be an end in itself. (P.193) What

can be done by mental concentration is limited. One may get the 'siddhis', one

may have remarkable powers, but these are not the ultimate. It is only when one

goes beyond oneself altogether that one discovers the Ultimate. It could be that

through 'samadhi' one opens oneself to the transcendent and receives grace, but

there is always an element of danger here. A great yogi can be a great egoist in

that he has really not gone beyond himself; he has only found his self and

concentrated at that point. So this can be a dangerous path and certainly it is

not the end. Patanjali also calls that final stage 'kaivalya', isolation. One

has separated oneself from everything and is centred now on that deep centre,

that deep point. It is a marvellous state but also a dangerous one, because it

is incomplete. So that is Patanjali's method of yoga. "

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith), Pg.188-193

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

 

Here now is Part 7.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

The Ascent to the Godhead - Part 7

 

(P.193) We come next to the very interesting development which took place in the

fifth and sixth centuries after Christ, that of the Tantra. The basic principle

of Tantra is that instead of going beyond your body, senses and mind, and going

to the One beyond in isolation ('kaivalya'), one works through the senses,

through the body and through the material world. This is an opposite method and

a complementary one. Today what is represented by Tantra is of extreme

importance because the danger in Hinduism has been this separating away from the

material world, from the human world, to concentrate on the Supreme beyond, and

that leads to a rejection of the material world. The material world becomes

known as 'maya', which is often translated as illusion. The word 'maya' is from

the root 'ma', to measure, from which the words " matter " and " mother " ('mater'

in Latin) are also derived. So the earlier system was fundamentally a separation

from matter, from the mother, from the feminine in the attempt to go beyond. It

is a marvellous path in its way but it is one-sided. But now with Tantra the

balance is restored as matter, the mother and the feminine are restored in their

proper place.

 

(P.194) In Tantra the aim is to reach the Supreme through all the levels of

one's being. A start is made with the basic level, which is the energy,

'shakti'. In the earlier tradition there is no mention of shakti. 'Prakriti' is

equivalent to 'shakti' in that she is both nature and the feminine principle,

but in the earlier tradition the aim was always to go beyond 'prakriti'. The

result of that was the devaluation of matter, of the body and the feminine. Now

with Tantra the balance is restored; the mother and the feminine, matter and the

body, come back. 'Prakriti' is now seen as the energy behind the whole universe

and behind one's own personal being. 'Shakti', energy, is what sustains the

universe and she is the mother. The method is now to bring consciousness into

every level of one's being, from the most basic level to the highest. This is a

totally different practice and today it is becoming more and more attractive

because we now realise the dangers of separating from nature, from matter, from

the body, the senses and the feminine. If one concentrates too much in the mind

this can result in what is basically a kind of schizophrenia, and that is

precisely what has happened in the West; we have over-developed our minds and

have under-developed the other complementary parts of our being. Tantra is seen

today as being of particular importance in that it is a practice in which the

balance and complementarity of the opposites is restored.

 

Tantra consists in bringing the consciousness into all the levels of being. The

understanding is that 'shakti', the divine energy which is in all nature, in all

matter and in one's own body, is rooted at the base of the spine like a coiled

serpent. In this form it is called 'kundalini' or serpent power. That

'kundalini' has to rise through the seven 'chakras', the seven levels of

consciousness, until it reaches the supreme consciousness beyond. 'Shiva' is

pure consciousness and 'shakti' is the energy. As this process takes place

'Shiva' and 'Shakti', the male and the female, are married, united, and the

whole person is transformed. That is the path of Tantra.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith), Pg. 193-194

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0