Tantra The Way of Action: A Practical Guide to its Teachings and Techniques

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While Tantra has mystical, philosophical, and religious aspects, it is, above all, a technique of action a path of physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines incorporating meditation, yoga, and sacramental worship. Its sole purpose is the transformation or spiritual rebirth of the individual into a new existence and an enlightened state of consciousness.

In Tantra: The Way of Action, Francis King provides a complete theo- retical and practical guide to the Tantric path of liberation. Topics covered include esoteric physiology, Qabalism, pleasure and pain, power and pas- sivity, right-hand and left-hand Tantra, and the arousal of the Kundalini serpent power. Following the spirit rather than the letter of the tradition, King maintains that Tantric techniques are universal processes. As such, they transcend the limitations of specific faith or dogma and are adaptable to Western culture and lifestyle.

It is equally correct to describe it as 'a mystical system concerned with polarity in general and sexuality in particular.

But both descriptions are incomplete. While Tantra has mystical, philosophical, and religious aspects it is, above all, a technique of action-a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline which incorporates meditation, yoga, and sacramental worship in the very widest sense of that phrase.

All the actions undertaken by a practitioner of Tantra are performed with one purpose only; they are all means to the same end. That end is the transformation of the individual, his or her rebirth to a new existence on every level of consciousness.

There is no 'tantric faith', to be accepted or rejected on the bases of thought and emotion; the philosophy, cosmology, and psychology of Tantra certainly exist-but they are no more than hypotheses which explain, reasonably satisfactorily, the results which are achieved by the performance of certain processes.

Tantra makes precisely the same claim as that made by ritual magic: 'If you follow a certain course of action with dedication and persistence you will be led back to the roots of your own identity, you will learn the truth about yourself and the universe which you inhabit, and the nature of your existence will be transformed!

Too many Westerners who have attempted to test the truth of these assertions for themselves have failed, or abandoned the attempt in despair, because they have followed the letter rather than the spirit of Tantra. They have felt, for example, that they cannot carry out the Ritual of the Five Ms (details of which are given at a later stage) unless they first obtain some unusual variety of parched grain which is not easily available outside India.