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Posts tagged ‘Sri Vidya’

Book Review: Śāktapramodaḥ of Deva Nandan Singh, edited by Madhu Khanna

Madhu Khanna should need no introduction from me. She was one of the first contemporary scholars to produce a comprehensive examination of Srikula with her Ph.D dissertation – The Concept and Liturgy of the Śricakra Based on Śivānanda’s Trilogy (Oxford University, 1986) – and her publications include: Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity (1994), Rta, The Cosmic Order (2004), and Asian Perspectives on the World’s Religions After September 11 edited with Arvind Sharma, (2013). She is currently the director of the Tantra Foundation. Continue reading »

January 17th 2014

Posted by Phil Hine in Book reviews, tantra

Tags: Kali, Mahavidyas, Sri Vidya

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Reading the Saundarya Lahari – IX

“The understanding of Śaivism can only aspire to objectivity if it includes a sincere effort to see how things are in the subjective perception of its practitioners. One has to be able to enter into the spirit of their world, to be with them intimately, to see what they are saying and why they are saying it, to go beneath the surface of their texts. There has to be empathy.”
Alexis Sanderson

In the opening post to this series examining Saundaryalahari I noted that, as a text, Saundaryalahari “works” in a variety of ways: it can be read simultaneously as a literary work (Kavya); as a ritual manual (prayoga), as a work of devotion (bhakti) and as a text which hides/encodes tantric “secrets”.

When Saundaryalahari is sung, recited, listened to, contemplated upon, these multiple registers coalesce, offering a vision/encounter with the goddess (Tripurasundari Devi). As hymn or prayer, Saundaryalahari opens, points the way to – a direct encounter with Devi – an encounter which requires and produces transformation in all whom it touches. To speak, to hear, to contemplate Saundaryalahari is to enter into a direct relation with Devi – to attend Her and be attended to by Her. Continue reading »

January 11th 2014

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

Tags: Lalita, reflections, Saundaryalahari, Sri Vidya, text

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Heart practice: On the Adoration of the Senses – I

“Just as one who sees something out of the ordinary experiences a feeling of amazement, so the feeling of amazement in enjoying contact with the various manifestations of knowable reality is continually produced in this great yogin with the whole wheel of the senses increasingly revealed, motionless, disclosed, by virtue of penetrating into its most intimate nature, the compact union of ever-renewed consciousness and wonder, extreme, extraordinary.”
Ksemaraja, commentary on Śivasutra, 1.12, quoted from Torella, 2012

“All wisdoms have celebrated the instant, the wise man leaves aside memory; he has few projects, makes himself at home in the present, inhabits its differential.”
Michel Serres, The Five Senses

I’ve been taking this foray into “heart practice” slowly, beginning with a central theme in tantra practice – that of the goddess dwelling in the heart. I’m now going to progress things slightly, with a look at a practice I tend to refer to as the “adoration of the senses”. But first, some thoughts on the senses themselves. Continue reading »

November 1st 2013

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

Tags: Abhinavagupta, Heart Practice, Practice, reflections, senses, Sri Vidya

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Reading the Saundarya Lahari – VII

When She, the Supreme Power, [becoming] out of her own desire, embodying all that exists perceives herself as flashing forth, the chakra then appears.
Yoginihrdaya, 9

For this post, I’m going to briefly discuss verses 14-16 of Anandalahari. Continue reading »

October 16th 2013

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

Tags: Lalita, reflections, Saundaryalahari, Sri Vidya, text

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Some reflections on Heart Practice

“Salutations to Sri Mata
Salutations to Sri Maharajni
Salulations to the Queen seated upon the lion-throne
Salutations to She who resides in the fire of consciousness
Salutations to She who shines with the red brilliance of a thousand rising suns
Salutations to She who bears the noose, the goad, the sugarcane bow; the five sense-arrows
Salutations to She whose red brilliance engulfs the universe.
Lalitasahasramana

One of the ways in which I have, for some years now, approached tantra sadhana is to start with something (relatively) simple, and then extend it with other practices as time, circumstances, and insights allow. There’s a tendency in western occulture to make a distinction between “basic” and “advanced” practices – where “basic” practices constitute something that you do for a set period and then never bother with again, and the “advanced” practices which are really, where the action is. In terms of my approach to tantra practice, I tend to think instead of “core” practices – which can be deepened and enriched over time. Continue reading »

September 4th 2013

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

Tags: Heart Practice, Lalita, Practice, reflections, Sri Vidya

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Reading the Saundarya Lahari – VI

There are many “origin stories” for Saundaryalahari. As I noted in a previous post, the text is traditionally ascribed to Sankaracarya. One of the origin stories has Sankara visiting Siva’s home on Mount Kailasa, where he notices a divine book lying on Siva’s throne – a treasured possession of Parvati. Sankara picks up the book and hastens towards the exit, but is prevented from leaving by Siva’s doorkeeper – Nandikesvara. He and Sankara fight over the book, and Sankara manages to get away with the first portion of the book – the Anandalahari – to which he later adds another 59 stanzas of his own. In another version, Sankara finds the entirety of Saundaryalahari inscribed in stone on Mount Kailasa (having been carved by Nandikesvara who overheard Siva eulogising the goddess with them) but the goddess erases the words, so that Sankara (again) – only memorises the Anandalahari section. These origin stories make a clear distinction between the Anandalahari and the remainder of the poem. Continue reading »

August 24th 2013

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

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

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Reading the Saundarya Lahari – V

“When she, the supreme power, [becoming] by her own free will embodied as all that exists, perceives her own throbbing radiance, the chakra is then being produced.
The Heart of the Yogini Tantra

“I worship that goddess who is supreme Siva, whose form is the indestructable a-letter, manifesting the tides of the waves of the kulas.”
Nityasodasikarnava 1:10

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July 12th 2013

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

Tags: Lalita, reflections, Saundaryalahari, Sri Vidya, text

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Reading the Saundarya Lahari – IV

Following from the previous two verses (examined in the last two posts – (see Reading the Saundarya Lahari – III-2 for summary) which together, produce an image of the goddess for dhyana) verses 9-10 shift focus suddenly towards what seem to be, at first glance, expositions of the goddess in relation to the chakras. Verses 9 and 10 are often interpreted in relation to various yogic accounts of Kundalini. Some contemporary commentaries on Saundaryalahri take this as a cue to go into long, detailed expositions of Kundalini schemas. I’m not going to do that, however. Continue reading »

May 21st 2013

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

Tags: Lalita, reflections, Saundaryalahari, Sri Vidya, text

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Reading the Saundaryalahari – an aside

As an “interlude” before moving on with my reflections on further verses of Saundaryalahari I want to discuss the matter of the Samayacara and Kaulacara divisions in Srividya practice, as mentioned in a previous post. Continue reading »

September 7th 2012

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

Tags: Saundaryalahari, Sri Vidya

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Book review: Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth

I’m generally wary of the comparative approach to the study of religion (and myth), if only as, as an approach it has tended to supress or conceal differences between cultures, giving rise to the illusion of homogeneity by reducing the expressions of other cultures to the concepts being deployed by the person doing the comparison. Comparative approaches, so often uncritically map the religious features of other cultures onto European classifications, and thereby work as a form of cultural imperialism. Comparative models have also been used to support the flawed notion that magical/religious techniques can be easily “lifted” from their cultural context. Continue reading »

July 25th 2012

Posted by Phil Hine in Book reviews

Tags: comparative, Hinduism, religion, Sri Vidya

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