Swadiksha in Sri Vidya traditions

[Guest guest]

The other day I spoke with a serious student of Douglas Brooks, the

well-known Western scholar-practitioner of Sri Vidya, and I asked the

student whether Brooks himself gives diksha to his students.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't really get an opportunity to talk in detail

about this with him, but the student mentioned briefly that the Rajanaka

Sri Vidya whence Brooks hails doesn't advocate diksha, per se, but

rather swadiksha.

 

Are there any students of Brooks on the list who could perhaps clarify

and elaborate on this concept?

 

Otherwise, knowledgeable list members, how does this does process of

swadiksha work in actual practice?

 

C.

[Guest guest]

The best way to learn about Brooks's tradition is to read his blog:

http://rajanaka.blogspot.com/

 

Swadiksha is somewhat rare in Sri Vidya, as far as I know, but diksha in

many Sri Vidya traditions is not complex, either, and simply involves

transmission of the mantra from guru to disciple, transferring the energy of

the parampara and sampradaya. It is a very moving experience for the

disciple, regardless of whether the ritual is very complex or very simple.

 

David Frawley describes one method of swadiksha in his book *Tantric Yoga

and the Wisdom Goddesses. *However, his method still involves the invoking

of the guru (via Dattatreya, IIRC).

 

It's worth noting that many of the traditions that encourage swadiksha still

have a strong guru-disciple bond, or are not really swadiksha (that is, they

say to outsiders that they engage in self-initiation, but then that isn't

actually what happens when you get into it and are in the ceremony. You can

say you practice the tradition, but you don't REALLY practice it until

you've been initiated formally by the leader - there's sort of an

insider/outsider status with concentric circles of insider-ness). This is

not to suggest that Brooks's tradition is this way, but it is how I have

seen some groups work, especially in the east/west Tantra/pagan fusion

traditions.

 

The tradition of Shree Maa is one of initiation by sincerity. That is, if

you consider Shree Maa your guru, she is your guru, and if you wish to be

initiated, you are initiated. However, they do have close disciples that

they give direct teaching to, and they also initiate people into sannyas,

etc. These are all various traditions with various requirements.

 

But I would venture to say that most Tantric traditions require *some form* of

formal initiation by the guru in order for practice to be considered

legitimate.

 

I think the right path finds the disciple at the right time. And sometimes

we have to go through a number of paths and teachers before we find our true

spiritual family. The guru is like a parent, but not in a pathological or

neurotic sense - it is really in the best sense. The guru wants their child

to become the best they can be, and the child is learning to crawl, walk,

run, and then - if they are lucky - to fly.

 

jai MA kamesvari

-kulasundari

 

Sri Kamakhya Mahavidya Mandir

www.kamakhyamandir.org

 

 

 

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 12:51 AM, intimationsofinfinity <

intimationsofinfinity wrote:

 

>

>

>

> The other day I spoke with a serious student of Douglas Brooks, the

> well-known Western scholar-practitioner of Sri Vidya, and I asked the

> student whether Brooks himself gives diksha to his students.

>

> Unfortunately, I didn't really get an opportunity to talk in detail

> about this with him, but the student mentioned briefly that the Rajanaka

> Sri Vidya whence Brooks hails doesn't advocate diksha, per se, but

> rather swadiksha.

>

> Are there any students of Brooks on the list who could perhaps clarify

> and elaborate on this concept?

>

> Otherwise, knowledgeable list members, how does this does process of

> swadiksha work in actual practice?

>

> C.

>

>

>