Actually, HATHA YOGA is also known as the RIGHT HANDED PATH OF TANTRA.
Are you really practising ASHTANGA YOGA or is it SAPTANGA YOGA
? HATHA YOGA = the RIGHT PATH OF TANTRA)?
Here is a link to a great chat on these topics I just had with James Gopala on his podcast Gopala Yoga
There are TWO SIDES OF TANTRA:
The Right-handed Path of Tantra = Dakshinachara
The Left-handed Path of Tantra = Vamachara = HATHA YOGA
Both sides of Tantra utilise the ‘Pancha Makara’ (5 things all starting with the sound ‘M’)
THE PANCHA MAKARA (The 5 M of TANTRA) (Different interpretations in the LEFT & RIGHT Side of TANTRA
MADYA:
Left Path of Tantra: Practitioners may make special use of Alcohol and perhaps other Drugs
Right Path of Tantra (HATHA YOGA): Practitioners learn to drink the Soma (Utilising Pineal secretions perhaps even the DMT produced there)
MAMSA:
Left Path of Tantra: Practitioners may make special use of Dead Animal Flesh (also sometimes dead human flesh)
Right Path of Tantra (HATHA YOGA): Practitioners learn to work with and eventually swallow the tongue (Khechari mudra)
MATSYA: –
Left Path of Tantra: Practitioners may make special use of eating Dead Fish
Right Path of Tantra (HATHA YOGA): Practitioners learn to work with Prana in Pranayama (Prana is the ‘fish’ in the channels called Nadis)
MUDRA:
Left Path of Tantra: Practitioners may make special use of parched (cooked or fermented) grains (possibly also including Ergots and Psychedelic drugs)
Right Path of Tantra (HATHA YOGA): Practitioners learn to work with Mudras (Energy controlling gestures, including and/or posture movement, breathing, mental control)
MAITHUNA:
Left Path of Tantra: Practitioners may make special use of various sexual practices
Right Path of Tantra (HATHA YOGA): Practitioners learn to create a union between their Kundalini (Shakti) energy at the base of the spine with their Shiva energy at their Crown Chakra
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The ‘Right-hand’ Path of Tantra is a very practical system called Hatha Yoga
(This includes most of the physical practices that people use in modern yoga today – but it includes so much more that is not generally practised in modern yoga)
HATHA YOGA = SAPTANGA (7 Stage) YOGA:
1. KRIYA
2. ASANA
3. MUDRA
4. PRANAYAMA
5. DHARANA
6. DHYANA
7. SAMADHI
You can compare this to ASHTANGA (8 Stage) YOGA which is the philosophical system of Patanjali (and has little to do the actual practice of the modern Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, which is actually a type of Hatha (Saptanga Yoga)
1. YAMA
2. NIYAMA
3. ASANA
4. PRANAYAMA
5. PRATYAHARA
6. DHARANA
7. DHYANA
8. SAMADHI
Hatha yoga is a compilation of techniques from both Tantra and Samkhya. In kundalini yoga, in kriya yoga, where we are dealing with chakras and the kundalini, it is an aspect of Samkhya as well as a part of Tantra. The practices of kundalini and kriya yoga are considered to be a synthesis of Yoga and Tantra.
The Left-handed Path of Tantra = Vamachara = Hatha yoga. t employs “Pancha Makara”, the five M-s or the forbidden things.
Today ”Tantra Yoga” = Neo-Tantrism: this is often a corruption of the original teachings of Tantra which confuses pleasure with bliss
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MORE ABOUT TANTRA (I talk about these things in my talk with James at https://youtu.be/qxfFtxzxrR0
Tantra has been derived from the combination of two Sanskrit words:
Tanoti – or expansion
Trayati – or liberation
Tantra is the liberation of energy to increase awareness.
Tantra is the method to expand the mind and liberate the dormant potential energy. This is achieved by introverting the senses and turning the mind inwards. Then, matter is separated from energy, thereby liberating the energy or the Shakti principle, which then unites the shiva or consciousness, creating homogeneous awareness.
Tantra arose, not in order that people should renounce or escape the world, but they experience life more fully, and at the same time use the experience of the world to attain spiritual knowledge or higher states of awareness.
The goal of the practice of Tantra Yoga (in the form of true Hatha Yoga) is to release the female Shakti energy and move her up the central channel of the body, to meet with the masculine Shiva energy waiting for her just above the crown of the head.
In either case, the tools mostly used to awaken and move the sleeping Shakti are the tools of pranayama. You may be interested in learning advanced breathing techniques in our online course Breathe. Try a FREE lecture here.
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