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Posts tagged ‘Lalita’

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1. Playful mind

   Meditation is often thought of in terms of stilling the internal dialogue, of calming the endless fluctuations or whirlings (vrittis) of cognition. Often, beginners in meditation find this difficult, and its easy to get into the routine of making meditation a seperate space from the rest of our lives; of practicing it at times when we won’t be disturbed by too many sense-distractions. It is difficult to still the endless flow of cognitions – to lengthen the gap between thoughts. Why not do the opposite? Let the mind play. Continue reading »

   

   March 19th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Lalita, meditation, Practice, Sri Vidya

   13 comments »

2. Deity Meditation: Lalita

   Meditating on the image of a deity is a very old practice (its generally thought that it emerged from early Buddhist practice around the 5th century BCE). Meditation is not really a seperate “technique” as its often presented to be in contemporary writings (more of which another time) but is an aspect of one’s overall sadhana – inseperable from the visualisation/recollection of any interiorised image or form. The root of the Sanskrit dhyana – often translated as “meditation” is dhi – “to see”. Indeed, the seperation of “meditation” from other forms of sadhana is a relatively recent one, and can be seen emerging at the turn of the twentieth century with the prioritising of internal mental practices over bodily-oriented practices and external ritual. Continue reading »

   

   February 26th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Lalita, meditation, Practice, sadhana, Sri Vidya

   2 comments »

3. A meditation on Lalita

   The Saundaryalahari (“Flood of Beauty”) is a key Srividya text, sometimes attributed to Sankara. Composed of 100 verses, it is usually divided into two parts – verses 1-41 and verses 42-100. The first section, sometimes called the Anandalahari (“Wave of Joy”) is concerned with the facets of Lalita sadhana – her image in external worship, but also her Yantra and mantra-modalities The verses can also be read in such a way as to relate them to the subtle mapping of chakras, nadis, etc. The Anandalahari is sometimes seen as originating directly from Siva, or Lalita Herself. Continue reading »

   

   October 14th 2009

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Lalita, meditation, Practice, Saundaryalahari, Sri Vidya

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4. A sidelong glance

   “His bow is made of flowers, the bowstring of bees, five are his arrows,
   Vasanta (Spring) is his adjutant, the Malaya breeze his war chariot,
   and yet, by himself, O daughter of the snow mountain, when but a bit of compassion
   he has got from a side glance of yours, the Bodiless One (Kama) conquers this world entire.”
   Saundaryalahari, 6 Continue reading »

   

   September 3rd 2009

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Lalita, reflections, Saundaryalahari, Sri Vidya

   1 comment »

5. Approaching texts

   Sometimes, when I look at tantric texts, I’m reminded of Joss Whedon’s description of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a “fairy story” rather than a “driving manual”. If you look at the majority of magical “how-to” books written these days, they are often presented as “manuals” – “here’s an explanation of this concept” – followed by “here’s how you do it” possibly followed by some discussion of the author’s own experience. Some authors will assume a shared language, whilst others will take great pain to explain what they mean by a particular term or concept. There is a general assumption though, that the reader may be unfamiliar with what the author is writing about and so good authors take that into account and explain stuff, to varying degrees. So there’s a degree of expectancy amongst occult practitioners that written material will, on the most part, be accessible, and, to varying degrees, familiar. Continue reading »

   

   August 3rd 2009

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Lalita, reflections, text

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