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Tantric Spirituality Teaching Course: I Hinduism
To find out what is special about these courses, please see the Tantric Spirituality Teaching Course page on this web site. KALI Kali's gaze is fathomless and acute. In her many hands Kali clasps a cleaver, savagely, matter-of-factly cutting everything down to bedrock reality; a trident, shears (to sever the threads of fate) - and a severed head used as a bowl of abundance. She raises her remaining hand in a gesture of blessing and boon-bestowal. She has a garland necklace of severed heads dangling to her knees (the destruction of human illusion) and a skirt of gory severed heads and hands. Kali operates at the irrational, unconscious, energetic levels with her human devotees. To turn away from Kali, once you have met her, would be to live as a shadow. To face her is to embrace her. Kali has seen it all and she 'holds' matter-of-factly, even the most tragic or harrowing of human experiences and yet, cradling this, she offers a torrent of love. Kali's gift could only be experienced through devotion.
VISHNU
Ineffable, over unimaginably vast aeons of time, the God reclines in beatific ecstasy on the coils of the snake. He rests eternally on the cosmic waters. The God dissolves all conflict with simply a blissful movement of his hand.
SHIVA
Shiva
GANESHA
Ganesha Ganesha is Lord of Obstacles. He is invoked at the beginning of every puja (ritual) or undertaking.
DURGA Durga Durga is wrathful energy, compassionately and ethically directed. She is the slayer of Demons.
Lakshmi
Krishna
Hanuman Selfless giving
Hinduism Hinduism is a vast and ancient spirituality - a tree with many roots and branches. Hinduism believes that the individual is actually one with god (we are, therefore, also all one with each other). But, because we are born in fetters of ignorance and blindness, we cannot see this. Yet, however fettered we may be in our initial ignorance, we can never-the-less develop a devotional relationship with god - and thus, we can transform. We can do this in three ways: through devotion to god (puja), through good works, and through the grace of god offered to us when the time is right (in god's own good time). We can thus become who we were born to be, who we are: god. The Modules HA 1. Historical Introduction I provide you with a simple but adequate historical and conceptual introduction to Hinduism. HA 2. A Definition of tantra and the methods of Puja, Mantra and Bhajan. HA 3. The Chakra model and Kundalini The chakras: Muladhara, Svadhishthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha, Ajna and Sahasra; Ida and Pingala. The major systems are described. How was the system altered during its transmission to the modern west? HA 4. The three gunas The three gunas are sattva (purity/goodness), rajas (energy/passion) and tamas (inertia/dullness). I teach this system. How valuable do we find it? HA 5. Prana, Tejas and Ojas HA 6. 'Levels of Speech' model: We examine Vaikhari, Madhyama, Pashyanti and Para. HA 7. Karma HA 8. The Doctrine of Bandhatva HA 9. Moksha HA 10. Yoga consciousness HA 11. Maha Maya In Hinduism, Maha Maya is the material world. The core concept is that the material realm is the Great Illusion. This illusion may be seductive or it may be terrifying or restrictive, but Maha Maya is divinised as a Goddess because she can teach us about ourselves and we can learn salvific lessons by considering how we act in relation to the material realm. Maha Maya is the veils behind which truth lies. Part of our liberation is understanding the nature of these veils, that is why they are there; that is why we are here - for us to make spiritual progress. HA 12. Surrender HA 13. Renunciation HA 14. Shiva-Shakti HA 15. Destruction HA 16. Purity systems HA 17. A Hindu contribution to modern paganism: The chakra puja and the five Ms. HA 18. SYNTHESIS: Comparisons with Buddhism, Paganism, Shamanism and Mysticism.
The experiential part of the Hinduism course covers the following 23 modules, all coded 'HB': HB1 - HB7. The Chakras: We develop energetic contacts with the chakras: HB 1. Muladhara HB 2. Svadhishthana HB 3. Manipura HB 4. Anahata HB 5. Vishuddha HB 6. Ajna HB 7. Sahasra DEITIES We undertake powerful and beautiful transformative tantric rituals to contact, realize and worship the deities of Hinduism. These modules will allow you and your fellow spiritual practitioners, friends or clients, to fully and ethically, access and experience these gods, as 'Faces of the Divine': Modules HB8 - HB17 worship aspects of the Goddess. We learn their appearance, their summoning mantras and their chakric abodes within the body: HB 8. Kali: Mother Kali: dark, destructive and terrible in form, whose terrible-seeming gift is ethical and only ethical, and given out of love, to destroy what must be destroyed. Power of action. HB 9. Tara (also in Tibetan Buddhism): beautiful, gentle ethical deliverer and Saviouress. Tara has a transcendent and immaculate form, but, blessedly, she also involves herself too in the form-realm. She has a wrathful-compassionate form, too, with matted hair, eight serpents signifying Siddhis, magical psychic gifts needed to assume all the forms needed to do the work of compassion, scissors relating to her ability to cut-off attachments and a lotus flower to symbolize her open heart. HB 10. Tripura Sundari: lovely, synonymous with beauty: freshly-blooming lotus dwelling in a forest of bliss: highest beauty that is the light of consciousness; divine delight of the Moon. Power of knowledge. HB 11. Bhuvaneshvari: Queen of all the worlds, great cosmic womb, teeming generative matrix, root substance of nature. Desire and play, peace and void. Power of love. HB 12. Bhairavi: effulgent warrior, beautiful and dangerous. Power of anger and wrath. Fierce form of transforming energy. Destroyer of demons. HB 13. Chhinnamasta (equates to Vajra Yogini in Tibetan Buddhism): Frightening giver of peace, she who opens us to universal consciousness. Eliminator of negativity and ego. Lightning-bolt of direct perception, piercing the Rudra-granthi allowing us to descend into darkness and ascend into light.
HB 14. Dhumavati: elder-energy. The hag; somber revealer of what is profound and hidden, bringer of meaning amid misfortune; wisdom of forgetting. Ultimate silence. She carries a winnowing basket and asks us to look for inner truth. HB 15. Bagalamukhi: Goddess of hypnotic beauty and seductive power: impact of irrefutable brilliant light. Weapon to end conflict. Power to overcome. HB 16. Matangi: auspicious joy, lotus blossom, nectar of sound, passionate elephant of enlightenment. Wild effusion and bliss of hearing. HB 17. Kamalatmika: lotus goddess of delight. Beauty and bliss. Love. Pleasure in creation and action. Spiritual wealth and desire fulfilled. HB 18. Shiva HB 19. Vishnu HB 20. Ganesha HB 21. Hanuman HB 22. Durga HB 23. Krishna
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