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they generally recognize each other as Hindu. This is a far cry from the West were
people have been persecuted for worshiping a different god or a different version of the
same deity.
The reason for this tolerance goes back to the earliest of spiritual notions which seems to
fill all of Hinduism. Specifically, a basis of Hinduism is that there is one ultimate deity,
known as Brahman (who should not be confused with Brahma, part of the primary Hindu
trinity), who is basically unknowable. All other deities are simply aspects of Brahman.
Each manifests certain qualities of the Divine. It is for this reason that Hinduism has
been called a monotheistic religion with thousands of gods.
This is Hinduism today. It is the mainstream of Hindu thought. If we follow the
comparison above and say that Wicca/Witchcraft/Neo-Paganism are re-establishments of
certain styles of pre-Christian belief in the West, what is the comparison in India? What
preceded Hinduism?
The surprising answer: Tantra.
TANTRA: THE NEW
Today, there are two major trends in Tantric philosophy, belief and practice. The most
common form seen in the West (and the focus of most of the pop-culture books on the
subject) has been called „neo-Tantra‰ by Georg Feuerstein in his book, Tantra (p.xiii).
The focus of neo-Tantra is on bliss resulting from certain mental, physical, and spiritual
practices. The goal in neo-Tantra is to extend this period of Tantric Bliss for many
minutes or hours. Most of the books on Tantra today only discuss neo-Tantra and define
it as Tantra per se. Some of the techniques used by neo-Tantrics are taken from foreign
sources, including Taoism, Reichian therapy, Esalen massage techniques, and more. As I
write this, a friend of mine is attending a course in „Tantsu,‰ or Tantric Shiatsu.
It is neo-Tantra that most Westerners think of when they hear about Tantra. Thus, most
Westerners think that Tantra is only about bliss and sex.
Sex is a very delicate subject in the West. Comedians and films joke about it, but honest
discussions of the subject tend to be either clinical and dry or lurid. Such discussions
often cause nervous tittering in audiences. In my experience, most people come to
neo-Tantra for one of two reasons. Either they are (in the term used by Colin Wilson)
„Outsiders,‰ societal adventurers looking for more in their sexual and spiritual lives, or
they are so dissatisfied with their sexual lives that they are willing to break through
deeply-felt societal barriers to improving sexuality in order to see if neo-Tantra can help
them.
To these brave souls neo-Tantra is nothing less than a revelation. Most modern western
spiritual practices &Mac247; primarily praying, reading sacred scriptures, and meditating
&Mac247; are strictly mental in nature. Neo-Tantra, on the other hand involves great
physicality. Along with the mental work of understanding the philosophy and
visualization, neo-Tantra can include massage, movement, breathwork and yoga, as well
as eroticism.
Although neo-Tantra is not the same as the historic Tantra, is does reveal to its
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