Centre energetice subtile in diferite traditii spirituale de ... - Mirahorian

Vajrayana, or Tantric Buddhism, has been described as the latest phase in the
development and evolution of Buddhist thought. For a long time, Western scholars
dismissed Vajrayana as the final "degenerate phase" of Buddhist thought. This
attitude was due to the fact that these materialistic scholars had only a Christian or a
secular way of seeing the world. They could appreciate ordinary Buddhism
(Theravada, etc), seeing the Buddha as the Christ of the East teaching an essentially
moral message, or as a sort of spiritual humanist; but when faced with a system of
knowledge and practice that embraced all the magical and occult elements that
Western rationalism had rejected centuries ago, could only explain it as some sort of
degenerate end phase.
Fortunately, in more recent times other Westerners have studied Tantric Buddhism
first hand, at the feet of actual Tibetan Masters, and so have a more mature
appreciation and respect for that noble tradition. Indeed, if anything good has come
out of the terrible Chinese invasion and oppression of the Tibetan homeland in the 2nd
half of the 20th century, it has been that this has driven Tibetan lamas and teachers to
the West, and encouraged them to spread their tradition among sympathetic
Westerners.
Vajrayana metaphysics is, like Indian Tantra, a hybrid affair: a coming together of
Indian Tantrism, Mahayana Buddhism, and the original aboriginal shamanism - the Bon
tradition - of Tibet itself. Like the Nathas, Shaktas, and Shaivites, the Vajrayanists
postulated a subtle or iconographic body, made up of chakras, nadis, and subtle winds
(vayu). And like their Indian counterparts they worked on manipulating the forces of
this subtle body through yoga in order to attain spiritual enlightenment. But Vajrayana
tantra diverged very early from Indian tantra. Instead of the later seven-chakra
model, they retain an earlier four chak-ra schema of navel, heart, throat, and head
centres. Starting from this four-chakra foundation, the Vajrayanists - like the Indian
tantics - built up a very elaborate system of correspondences.
There are a number of other important differences to Indian (Shakta) Tantra as well.
In Indian tantra one starts form the base chakra and progresses up. In Tibetan tantra
one starts from the head, which is the "lowest" level of consciousness (body, waking
consciousness, wrathful deities), and progresses down to the heart, which is the
highest level of consciousness.
With Indian Tantra the kundalini is awakened through specific breathing practices and
yoga-postures. The prana or vital-force of the subtle body is thus manipulated through
the breath and the physical body; through an extension of Hatha yoga which, the
reader will recall, was associated from the beginning with Indian Tantra. In contrast,
Vajrayana practice involves manipulating the vital force through the mind and
concentration. Through intense visualisation of deities and so on, one activates the
inner "winds" (= prana = ch'i) and "drops".
The Instead of the Kundalini-Shakti or "Serpent Fire" of Shakta Tantrism, Vajrayana has
the Tumo (literally "fierce woman"). Through intense visualisation of deities and
concentration upon the "lower tip" (the minor chakra at the tip of the sex-organ), the
winds (prana) are drawn into the lower opening of the central channel (sushumna),
producing an intense heat, called tumo [Daniel Cozort, Highest Yoga Tantra, p.71]. In
her fascinating book, Magic and Mystery in Tibet Alexandra David-Neel popularised
stories of Tibetan yogis drying icy sheets with their naked bodies outside in the middle
of winter. That is a showy exhibition of tumo. Real tumo of course is the tantric
meditation itself.
As a result of the tumo-heat, the drops melt and enter the central channel. The red
"female" drops in the navel chakra ascends to the heart chakra, while the white drops
in the crown chakra descend to the same chakra. The bliss of the drops flowing in the
central channel is said to be a hundred times greater than that of orgasm [p.71]. The
drops, moving up or down the central channel, finally enter the "indestructable drop"
in the heart chakra, so called because it is said to be drop that passes from life-time to
life-time, taking with it the "very subtle mind" and "very subtle wind" [p.72].
The entire visualisation or meditation stage itself is called the stage of Generation, as
its purpose of is to construct or generate an actual enlightenment or buddha-body, the
stage of Completion. The result of all this is that one rises in an "illusory body", so