The body in Buddhist and Hindu Tantra: Some notes

Abstract

The Buddhist and Hindu Tantras employ a non-dualist conceptualization of body and mind based upon the anatomy of the ‘subtle body’ with its ‘centres’ ( cakra), ‘channels’ ( nā d ī ) and flows of ‘energy’ ( prāna) and differing greatly from conventional Western modes of thinking about body and mind. The Buddhist Tantras add the central concept of bodhicitta, which is conceived of as both a motivational state and a pattern of energy-distribution within the ‘subtle body’. The Tantric terminology forms part of a set of techniques for learning new modes of operating with the human nervous system and thus the body-mind totality. The social and cultural implications of such techniques, and more specifically of the Tantric sexual practices, are examined for both India and Tibet. It is suggested that transformation in ‘consciousness’ and transformations in ‘society’ such as those connected with the Tantras should be see as aspects of a single process, neither reducible to the other. The Tantric lineages preserve centuries of experience in the use of alternate states of consciousness and body-mind techniques within complex literate cultures. As Western interest in such processes grows, the Tantras provide an obvious resource, but if we are to learn from them we need also to consider them in relation to their original social and cultural milieu.