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Tantra and Philosophy
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postures and pressures, having his world-disc within the circle of this lotus, the Tantrika ‘awakens' Kundalini, who straightens, and pierces the bottom end of the Sushumna to begin her ascent. The initial sensation is violent and quite indescribable. Thereafter Kundalini enters each higher lotus in turn as the Tantrika focuses his mind on its structure and meaning."
Fig. 8 Stupa "This is the broad pattern of the ‘reversal of Genesis. The ascent is elaborated in detail. All traditions accept that it passes up through the regions of the five elemental states of ‘matter', each lower state being progressively absorbed into the higher: the solid is symbolized by earth; the liquid by water; the incandescent by fire; the gaseous by air; while the etherial has no direct symbol. (These resemble the 'elements of European alchemy, so often misunderstood.) Each higher state of 'matter comes nearer to the condition of undifferentiated energy, and represents a more intense inner perception of the interfusion of forces as they dissolve in time. The series, represented in the diagram (fig. 8), is symbolized in the Tantrik Buddhist stupa (a symbolic shape derived from the domed mound near the summit of which the bodily relics of Buddhist saints were enshrined for public reverence). It may be any size from a huge building to a small brass object.”
Fig. 1 to 8: with courtery from :
“Tantra : the Indian cult of Ecstacy" by : Philip Rawson Pub : Thames & Hudson ltd. London. (1993)
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