Publisher

Prof. Harunaga Isaacson has expressed interest in publishing the Tantric Reader under the auspices of the Center of Tantric Studies, Hamburg. This is excellent news, as it would guarantee high quality and affordability.

Kaulasūtra

After some more updates to the XeTeX code I at last started work on the BORI MS (445 of 1875–6) of the Kaulasūtras. It is evidently a Kashmirian MS from Jammu, written in the blocky bold script (what some people call “Jammu” nāgarī) common in so many transcripts from Śāradā. The scribe seems to have been extremely conscientious and records lacunae faithfully.

As Sanderson had noted the scribes exemplar was obviously already old and damaged, see end of line one:

atha kaulasūtrāntargatāni kāni cit sūtrāṇi likhyante / ādarśachinnabhinnatvāt / “Now some sūtras included in the Kaulasūtras are being written. Because the exemplar is torn and broken.”

So far no further manuscript of these sūtras has been discovered and it seems that the Kashmirian Śāradā source exemplar is gone for ever. How lucky we are to have at least these five folios!

An Open Letter to the Yoga Communities

Dear Lover of Yoga,

One hundred years ago, a scholar translated a little-known Sanskrit text of late Tantric Yoga that described the serpent power "Kundalinī Shakti" and the chakras, or subtle energy centers, of the human body.  The concepts brought to light through that translation eventually reached millions (through the work of Carl Jung and others), and had a huge impact on the development of American spirituality and the dissemination of Yoga throughout the world.  Knowing this, what would be your response if you found out that less than 4% of the hundreds of key texts on Yoga and Tantra have been reliably translated into English?  You'd want to see more hidden gems brought to light, wouldn't you?  Well, guess what: it's true.  And what's more, you can help bring them to light.

The Yoga movement has spread around the world and improved the lives of countless people.  Yet it is still young. It has barely begun to explore its roots and realize its potential. For any movement to succeed and benefit humanity long-term, it must root itself deeply and set its foundation carefully. But how can tat happen when we don't have access to the original sources of the once-flourishing  spiritual traditions of yoga or to the words of its master sages? The vast majority of original scriptures of Yoga and Tantra exist only in manuscript form. The publication and translation of these astonishing materials will eventually have a profound impact on the future of Yoga in all its forms (meditation, āsana, etc.). You have the opportunity to be a part of this history-making process.

The Community is You

The very heart of Yoga is the power of community. An unprecedented opportunity has arisen to make a big difference in the future course of Yoga--so we are appealing to the Yoga communities to help make this vision a reality in a very concrete, immediate way.

• For the first time, the most accomplished international scholars in Tantric Studies are compiling a book of translations of the crucial primary sources that form the bedrock of yoga theory and practice over the past 1000 years.
• Lack of institutional funding means that this remarkable book may not see the light of day.

What better solution than to appeal directly to those whom this work will ultimately benefit?  Why not demonstrate the power and passion of the Yoga communities for the future heritage of their practice? We believe you can help shape the future of Yoga.

What is "Tantra" really, and what does it have to do with Yoga?

As you may or may not know, recent research has shown that modern Yoga is rooted in the ancient Tantric traditions, especially those of Shaiva Tantra (aka Tantric Shaivism).

• Tantra is the name scholars give to an interreligious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures called Tantras.

This movement (in many of its branches) was a radically positive, world-embracing vision of the whole of reality as an expression of a singular, free and joyous Divine Consciousness. This Consciousness, the scriptures attest, is equally present in (and as) all things, especially our own hearts. So the purpose of spiritual practice is simply to bring about an inner realization of this truth. This realization, when fully experienced and embodied, is final liberation from all forms of mundane suffering. The practices used to bring this liberation about were meditation, prānāyāma, mantra, contemplation, visualization, āsanas, and karanas.  Does all this sound familiar?  If so, that is because Tantra is the ultimate source for the practice of modern yoga. (You may have heard that yoga comes from Patanjali, but this is because most of Patanjali's practices were adopted by the Tantric yogis.) Specifically, it is the branch called Shaiva Tantra that gave us Hatha-Yoga, which gave us the various branches of modern yoga.

Intention for the "Tantric Studies Reader"

The original scriptures of Tantra have remained almost entirely unpublished. The 600-page new book, temporarily titled the "Tantric Studies Reader", is an attempt to redress this, and stimulate more research and scholarship in this crucially important field.  Important in what sense? Both for our understanding of the development of Indian spiritual philosophy, and (we believe) for helping to catalyze the next phase in the growth of human consciousness. Even though this is a scholarly volume, it will ultimately impact the yoga communities through providing material for contemporary teachers to work with: allowing them to offer a more deeply rooted and authentic transmission of yogic and tantric teachings, practices, mantras, and so on.

The study of Tantric philosophy, ritual, and yoga will serve to enrich, promote, and legitimize the practice of yoga in the West, especially when undertaken by the next generation of young practitioner-scholars (at whom the Reader is primarily aimed). Note that this will be a book of literal translations, not interpretations. The exciting opportunity to interpret these fascinating (and almost lost) materials will be open to all of us for decades to come--if they are published. 

The Heart of the "Tantric Studies Reader"

None of the passages in the Reader have ever been translated into a Western language before. The Reader offers selections from many revealed Shaiva Tantric scriptures, ritual manuals, and philosophical commentaries (on the Tantras) by renowned Tantric sages such as Abhinavagupta. As important as this material evidently is, it has hardly generated any impact in the wider study of Indian culture or religion yet; most religious/Asian/Sanskrit studies courses, both in the West and India, simply end up ignoring such material for lack of easy access. The resulting picture of Indian civilization thus has largely omitted Tantrism, which was for nearly a thousand years the dominant form of religion in India--a spiritual tradition that greatly informed the various Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

Why funding is urgently needed

Obviously, this project requires an editor who is fluent in Sanskrit, who understands what is going on in the sources, is widely read, and can simplify without distorting. Our teacher and mentor, Dr. Somadeva Vasudeva (himself a student of Prof. Alexis Sanderson of Oxford), is an expert on Tantrik Yoga, having published a groundbreaking study on the role of Yoga within Tantric ritual. He is a lecturer at Columbia University, and has carefully selected specialists from the various areas of Tantric Studies as contributors for the book.

Since institutional funding for such projects is extremely scarce, and since we passionately believe in the importance of this work, we are seeking $18,000 total to bring the project to completion. This will be generated through many small donations and/or several large ones. If you are not yet sure whether you want to donate, please review our website at tantrikreader.com, and then donate through PayPal. Large donors will receive acknowledgements in the book itself, which will be available internationally.

Raising these funds is in fact very timely, as the book's editor, Dr. Vasudeva, can only work on it full-time when University is not in session (e.g. summer and winter break), due to teaching duties. The funding will accomplish several objectives:

• travel to meet with scholars around the world
• technology used to produce the Reader (e.g. software, fonts, etc.)
• living expenses to allow Dr. Vasudeva to focus full-time on producing the Reader

Dr. Vasudeva is a scholar and lover of the yogic scriptures who is not yet a part of the Yoga world, so he does not know what you all are capable of accomplishing. He believes funding is not available for this project, and we wish to give him the surprise of his life, for is our beloved mentor and teacher of Shaiva Tantra.  Please help us help him help the world of Yoga.

Yours in yoga,

Christopher Wallis and Christopher Tompkins

The Foundation for Yoga

The Tantric Reader's Value to the Yoga Community

This reader will provide to the public, mostly for the first time, access to source scriptures for modern Yoga, including the late corpus of so-called 'Hatha-Yoga' manuals that post-date the Tantric period. Translations in the reader will illuminate audiences on the richness, intricacy, and sanctity of Tantric Yoga, through revelations that include the following:

• The role and function of Yoga in Shaiva ritual. Passages will show that Yoga was the cornerstone of the Tantric ritual, as demonstrated by Dr. Somadeva Vasudeva's groundbreaking work, The Yoga of the Malinivijayottara Tantra. Further in-depth studies, to be presented in the Tantric Reader, will show that Yoga was the very agency of fulfilling the ritual, whose goal was to cause the spiritual liberation of the practitioner within one lifetime.
• The rich and detailed Yogic practices of mantra recitation, pranayama, yogic dharanas (visualizations) within Shaiva ritual.
• The source teachings on the subtle body  that are focused upon in Yoga practices. The layout of the subtle body, with  7 chakras (energy centers) and an elaborate system of channels (nadis), etc., (see below), has been given to modern audiences from later Hatha- Yoga texts (ca. 14th-19th centuries). This Reader will, for the first time, present original Tantric sources for the subtle body, which pre-date the Hatha-Yoga texts by 500-800 years.
• The origins of Kundalini Shakti, as well as her original role and function within Tantrik ritual, will be presented for the first time in a publication. The Tantric origins of the great 'Coiled' Goddess Power will be revealed in one of the passages provided in the Reader. Again, the role and purpose of Kundalini revealed here pre-dates current sources by 500-800 years, and is much richer by contrast. 

What is 'Tantric Yoga'?

Yoga as it has been inherited in the modern world has its roots in Tantric ritual and in secondary passages (padas) within Tantric scriptures. The practices of mantra, asana (seat/pose), withdrawal from the senses (pratyahara), meditation (dhyana), mudra, the subtle body (sukshma sharira) with its constituents (cakras, adharas, granthis, etc.) and channels (nadis), as well as the phenomenon of Kundalini Shakti are but some of the tenets that comprise Tantric Yoga. While some of these derive from earlier, pre-Tantric sources, such as the Hindu Upanishads and the Yoga Sutra, they were greatly expanded upon, ritualized, and philosophically contextualized in these medieval Tantras.

Tantric Yoga: the Sacred Source of Modern Yoga

After the waning of the Tantric movement, which lasted 700 years or so (ca. 600-1300 c.e.) and extended throughout India, some practices of Tantric Yoga were preserved and co-opted into the later (13th century forward) so-called 'Hatha-Yoga' manuals, such as the 15th century Hathayoga Pradipika and the 16th century Gheranda Samhita. It is from these manuals that most modern knowledge of Yoga and the subtle body derives. Unfortunately, much of the material on Yoga presented in the Hatha Yoga manuals, though maintaining some Yoga practices from the elaborate Tantric rituals that preceded them, largely forgot the philosophical and ritual importance of Yoga in the latter. In some cases, the intricacy (and therefore efficacy) of Yoga practices, such as breath regulation (pranayama) is lost, as they no longer resemble their Tantric precedents.

Those interested in Yoga may wish to note that most contemporary writings that claim to discuss 'Tantric Yoga' are usually without citations from primary (actual) Tantric sources. This is because there are few currently available in translation. Nearly all writings on the subtle body, the chakra system, or Kundalini, for example, derive from a work called the Shat-chakra-nirupana ("The Layout of the System of 6 Chakras"), translated in the early 20th century by Sir John Woodroofe (a.k.a Arthur Avalon). A late (16th century?) Hatha-Yoga manual, the Shat-chakra-nirupana post-dates the earliest Tantric Yoga sources on the subtle body by about 1000 years!

This discrepancy will begin to change with the advent of the Tantric Reader, which will contain translations of Tantric source teachings on Yoga.

Shaiva Tantric Reader: Contents (tentative)

The Reader primarily contains translations of primary sources.  It will include an introduction, with topics such as "What is a Tantra?", "Locating Scriptures: The Canon", "Interpretational Fallacies", and so on.  The Sanskrit texts which will appear in the book, in the original and in translation, include parts of:  

Pāśupata texts: Pañcārthabhāṣya

Vāmatantra texts: Tantrasadbhāvasāra, Umātilaka

Bhūtatantra texts: Kriyākālaguṇottara 

Śaivasiddhānta texts: Niśvāsa, Sārdhatriśatikālottara, Pauṣkarapārameśvara, Svāyambhuvasūtrasangraha, Matangapārameśvara

Vidyāpīṭha Yoginītantra texts: Siddhayogeśvarīmata, Picumata, Tantrasadbhāva, 

Kaulāmnāya texts: Kulasāra, Kulpañcāśikā, Ūrmikaulārṇava, Timirodghāṭana, Matsyendrasaṃhitā 

Stotras (hymns): Cittasantoṣatriṃśikā

Exegesis: Tantrāloka, Īśvarapratyabhijñā-vivṛtivimarśinī, more

Installation ritual texts: Devyāmata, Pingalāmata

Ritual Manuals: Siddhāntasārapaddhati, Atyantavimalatattvaratnāvalī, Nityādisangrahapaddhati, Dehasthadevatācakrastotra

Hathayoga: TBA

Contributors to the Shaiva Tantric Traditions Reader (some to be confirmed)

Hans Bakker

Peter Bisschop

Gavin Flood

Dominic Goodall

Shaman Hatley

Jurgen Hanneder

Csaba Kiss

Paul Muller-Ortega

John Nemec

Alexis Sanderson

Michael Slouber

Hamsa Stainton

Christopher Tompkins

Judit Torszok

Somadeva Vasudeva

Christopher Wallis

Testing

Testing the blog.