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Tantric asana, or sexo-yogic<br />
posture. Orissa, c. 18th century.<br />
Gouache on paper.<br />
24<br />
into it at will, mastery over the elements, and supernormal hearing<br />
so that one can hear 'the grass as it grows'.<br />
The ascent of Kundalini is accompanied by an experience of a<br />
mystical light of various colours. The colours of the division of<br />
Prana do not correspond on what we ordinarily associate with the<br />
solar spectrum but are the arrangement of colours on a<br />
supernormal plane. There is a similarity here to Goethe's analysis:<br />
'Colours have a mystical significance. For every diagram that<br />
shows the many colours is suggestive of primeval conditions<br />
which belong equally to man's perceptions as to Nature.' 3<br />
In recent years physiological scientists have been concerned to<br />
find out whether restriction of awareness to an unchanging<br />
stimulus results in a 'turning-off' of consciousness of the external<br />
world, as it occurs in, say, the practice of meditation. Their<br />
experiments have shown that when a subject is exposed to a<br />
continuous visual input or an unchanging stimulus called a<br />
'ganzfeld' (a patternless visual field) or a 'stabilized image', the<br />
subject loses complete contact with the external world. This<br />
phenomenon is, further, attributed to the structure of the central<br />
nervous system. The results of the tiny electrical potentials<br />
recorded on the electroencephalograph (EEG) have shown the<br />
appearance of the alpha rhythm in the brain. Similarly, recent<br />
studies of yoga also reveal that meditation is a 'high alpha state'.<br />
Likewise, during the practice of Kundalini-yoga when attention is<br />
focused in a state of one-pointedness by means of various<br />
meditative techniques (repetition of mantra, concentration on<br />
yantra, rhythmic breathing, etc.), the adept loses contact with the<br />
external world. In consequence, experts conclude that meditation<br />
is neither 'esoteric nor mysterious' but is a 'practical technique<br />
which uses an experiential knowledge of the structure of the<br />
nervous system' and hence is very much within the scope of<br />
practical applied psychology. 4<br />
Tantra teaches that the Kundalini Sakti can also be unravelled by<br />
the practice of asanas, the sexo-yogic disciplines: 'One must rise by<br />
that by which one falls.' Those very aspects of human nature which<br />
bind us can be stepping-stones to liberation. In this discipline,<br />
sexual impulses become a pathway for opening the realities of the<br />
cosmos, pointing towards the oneness of the finite and the infinite.<br />
The ritual of tantra asanas has developed into a formidable series of<br />
psycho-physical practices to promote the type of discipline<br />
conducive to meditation. In the act of asana, a man and a woman<br />
unite, and its fulfilment lies in the realization of one's potential<br />
with the experience of joy. During sexual union the adepts