THE
ARCANE
ARCHIVE

a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.


TOP | RELIGION | BUDDHISM

Tantra and Invocation

To: alt.magick,alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan
From: drm3p@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (drm-a student)
Subject: Re: Tantra and Invocation
Date: Sat, 28 Oct 1995 00:53:52 GMT

mbd3r@Virginia.EDU (Marcus Bughman Dovey) writes:

> I am currently searching for literature with detailed analyses of ritual 
> invocation in an attempt to find specific similarities with the Tibetan 
> Tantric practice of Diety Yoga.

	Marcus, like me, is probably proud that our University boasts
just about the best Tibetan Studies dept. in the West here,
over in Cocke Hall.  Including lots of lamas.  Please let us
know what they have to say about the issue of Tibetan Tantra
and ritual magic.

As I understand it:

  Deity Yoga by definition requires empowerment and initiation
from a guru in an authentic lineage.  Such empowerments entail
binding commitments to your guru and lineage: effectively, you
are a vessel of the tantric teachings, and your samaya, or bond,
ensures that they don't turn to poison (some of those poisons
can be quite intoxicating for a long time) by stealing them,
perverting them, or even contaminating them by wrong
associations.  Especially in the case of practices like magic--
which even an innovative teacher like Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
said was prohibited to anyone on the Bodhisattva path (see
*The Myth Of Freedom*)--it's best to check with the guru who
gave you your empowerment, as you have a permanent commitment
to him and his lineage.

	It's a matter between teacher and student, and they can
be quite forgiving of screwups, however embarassing.

> I am planning on getting Crowley's 8 Lectures on Yoga, even
> though I would guess that it deals with Indian Yoga. 

	In some works, such as Book Four, Crowley espouses an
understanding that shows he understood his own personal
experiences in terms of a structure beholden to a great
number of traditions.  It looked to me to be bereft of any
understanding of the dharma.  Check the sections on Dhyani and Samadhi,
which do not reflect any understanding of the Buddhist
transvaluation of these terms.

	Effectively, Crowley confounded Buddhism with
Yoga--failing to "see the space around yoga practice"--
(CTR's description of what the Buddha discovered).

	Power-oriented practices have to be abandoned in
many Buddhist traditions (see David Oller's thread on
*Zen and Wicca* in alt.religion.wicca); the tantric
practices within the Vajrayana--which is part of the
Mahayana, as Namdrol points out--are all founded on
the intention to benefit all sentient beings, and are
only ultimately effective within the structure laid
down by the guru.

> Crowley's book about the Tibetan Book of the Dead has also been suggetsed
> to me.



> So it would be extremely helpful if anyone could tell be about any 
> literature that may even deal directly with these two practices.

	Rituals, to be effective, require your guru's blessing,
in the Tibetan Deity Yoga tradition, as I understand it.  I've
seen practical confirmation of this, when there was a misprint
in a text, and a quite legitimate ritual--which our Rinpoche
hadn't intended we do at that point--was given to us to
practice.  Independently, and without informing each other, we
found that section didn't have any effect.

David
-- 

The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org.

Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small
donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site.

The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories,
each dealing with a different branch of
religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge.
Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit:
interdisciplinary: geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness
occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells
religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo
societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc.

SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE

There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):

Search For:
Match:  Any word All words Exact phrase

OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST

Southern Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo, including slave narratives & interviews
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice by cat yronwode: an introduction to African-American rootwork
Lucky W Amulet Archive by cat yronwode: an online museum of worldwide talismans and charms
Sacred Sex: essays and articles on tantra yoga, neo-tantra, karezza, sex magic, and sex worship
Sacred Landscape: essays and articles on archaeoastronomy, sacred architecture, and sacred geometry
Lucky Mojo Forum: practitioners answer queries on conjure; sponsored by the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Herb Magic: illustrated descriptions of magic herbs with free spells, recipes, and an ordering option
Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers: ethical diviners and hoodoo spell-casters
Freemasonry for Women by cat yronwode: a history of mixed-gender Freemasonic lodges
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church: spirit-led, inter-faith, the Smallest Church in the World
Satan Service Org: an archive presenting the theory, practice, and history of Satanism and Satanists
Gospel of Satan: the story of Jesus and the angels, from the perspective of the God of this World
Lucky Mojo Usenet FAQ Archive: FAQs and REFs for occult and magical usenet newsgroups
Candles and Curios: essays and articles on traditional African American conjure and folk magic
Aleister Crowley Text Archive: a multitude of texts by an early 20th century ceremonial occultist
Spiritual Spells: lessons in folk magic and spell casting from an eclectic Wiccan perspective
The Mystic Tea Room: divination by reading tea-leaves, with a museum of antique fortune telling cups
Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
Yronwode Home: personal pages of catherine yronwode and nagasiva yronwode, magical archivists
Lucky Mojo Magic Spells Archives: love spells, money spells, luck spells, protection spells, etc.
      Free Love Spell Archive: love spells, attraction spells, sex magick, romance spells, and lust spells
      Free Money Spell Archive: money spells, prosperity spells, and wealth spells for job and business
      Free Protection Spell Archive: protection spells against witchcraft, jinxes, hexes, and the evil eye
      Free Gambling Luck Spell Archive: lucky gambling spells for the lottery, casinos, and races