Tantra [antikvár]

IntroductionTantra is an Indian cult; but since it has evolved continuously from the remotest antiquity it is not limited to any of the particular Indian religions which arrived later on the historical scene. Groups of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains share Tantrik ideas and do Tantrik things; but there are symbols in the vast natural caverns of Palaeolithic Europe (c. 20,000 bc) which can be accurately matched with symbols still used today by Tantrikas. Hundreds of generations have devoted themselves to developing and refming Tantra, so that it now conveys with extraordinary purity the most essential patterns of human symbolic expression. It is widely recognized that this is what makes it so valuable for people of the present. Westerners as well as Indians.It would be wrong to call Tantra a religion; that term has too many misleading overtones nowadays for far too many people. Tantra is not a 'way of thought', either. Thought, in the sense of ordinary logical and very useful reasoning, Tantra sees as one of the chief causes for people gradually becoming disillusioned and miserable in what they believe to be their world. So Tantra works with action. Above all, Tantra is not something meant to be read about in books, although in fact there are numerous Sanskrit books known as Tantras. The earliest, a Buddhist