Tantric Buddhism

"The Buddha taught three cycles of teachings. His first cycle of teachings cover the basics, the prerequisites. This would include the Dharmapada.

His second cycle of teachings discusses the cosmology of the universes. But in his later years, he wrote the tantric texts.

The tantras can be very confusing for a person who is new to Buddhism, and for several thousand years the rule was not to expose a person or a new monk to the tantras until they had practiced for many, many years.

The Dali Lama and other notable Buddhist teachers have now indicated that since the world has plunged into a dark age, the information available in the tantras, which include the very, very powerful Kundalini release techniques, should be made available to the public.

Tantric Buddhism means that we become mature adults and we learn the reality of chaos theory.

The human mind and the entire life process is chaotic. Chaos is not something that lacks order; chaos has varieties of order within it.

Everything is subtle. Everything has a million sides. Everything is a manifestation of god. Everything is light. All beings are infinite. All things are perfect, in their own way.

In Tantric Buddhism we call the inherent knowledge that all animate and inanimate objects possess of themselves - their emptiness.

People who are capable of practicing tantra are individuals who have meditated for many, many years and developed very strong and powerful states of attention.

Some people go into tantra with the idea, sort of an intellectual approach, that now they can just do everything and stay high. That doesn't work at all.

The emphasis is on meditation in Tantric Zen. The experience of meditation in formal practice, zazen, where you're sitting down and meditating and concentrating.

A critical part of Tantric Buddhism is a process of turning of the activities and experiences in your daily life into meditation.

Consumer goods become enlightenment. Relationships -- anything! It doesn't really matter because infinity exists in everything.

It doesn't really matter what you do. It is your state of mind that matters.

Any avenue that you follow leads to light. All roads lead to Rome.

Success, failure, pain, small furry animals, household products, freeways, Star Wars systems -- all are interlinked in the dance of tantra, the disco of the mind, the ballroom of cosmic consciousness.

In Tantric Buddhism, we believe that Samsara is Nirvana. That is to say that everything in the universe is part of us. And we also are part of everything in the universe.

If you follow anything far enough in the universe, it will eventually lead to light.

Practitioners of tantra don't decide to break the rules. They are not particularly hung up on having sex or eating meat or drinking alcohol. They don't strive to do these things, nor do they strive to avoid them.

In tantra we don't believe in commandments. We believe in the moment and the truth that is applicable for that moment, as best we can sort it out with our heart, our intuition, our knowledge, our common sense.

In tantra, samsara is viewed as the same thing as nirvana. Eating a hamburger is meditation.

For most people the prohibitions are a good thing. But If you are able to maintain very powerful states of mind, then you'll find yourself in everything you see.

Tantric Buddhists don't believe in sin. Stupidity, yes, meaning we make ourselves or others suffer.

One person will eat meat and it will lower their attention field. Another person won't even be affected by it because they're not in the state of mind whereby they'll be affected by it.

For the person who wants to get to the mystical experience directly, Tantric Buddhism is the path.

Zen is Tantric Buddhism, Vajrayana is tantric Buddhism - these are various forms of it. Tantric Buddhism simply means cutting to the chase.

Tantra is quicker; but for some people it can be spiritually disastrous.

Why don't you like being you for a change? Just be different and don't hate yourself and feel very good about all your different desires and all the things you didn't want and want. Go get them all, and see what it's like.

There's a path in enlightenment called the path of negation where we intentionally throw ourselves into experiences that are extremely transient. In other words, we do all the stuff you're supposed to normally avoid to become enlightened, intentionally.

If you find a Tantric master - he has you go and do all the things you hate to do.

Tantra is spiritual, not religious. It deals with the spirit. Religion is just an applied body of doctrines that's believed or not believed by one or more individuals. Spirituality is the science of metaphysics.

Tantra is non-dogmatic, in the sense that we don't care about the sensual world; we don't care about other religious traditions. To not care doesn't mean that we don't learn.

What we seek to do in Tantric Buddhism is to liquefy ourselves. Life will automatically bring us to the next stage. You don't really have to know where you're going -- It's like breathing.

There's no right or wrong in the study of enlightenment. There's only experience.

Living in the spiritual world is very easy, once you grow accustomed to it. But initially, it puts you through some changes.

Music is part of the tantra, the dance of life. Before your eyes, before your awareness, is the procession of eternity.

Be neither attracted nor repulsed is the message of Tantric Buddhism. Don't be drawn to something, don't run away from it. Just naturally accept whatever comes into life.

Tantra is the perception of the oneness and the perfection of all things. Not just the perception of light, but the perception of darkness, seeing God in both beauty and horror.

In the world of Buddhist mind, in the advanced states, we go beyond time, space, life, death and Newsweek.

Tantric Buddhism is just a collection of things that work by doing them. And sometimes we add new things. We have electronic music; we did not have it in Tibet.

The emphasis in tantra is not what you find yourself doing, it's on meditation.

It's not what you do that matters. It's not what you say. There's nothing that is not holy or spiritual. Be beyond definition, beyond categorization, be absorbed."

- Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz

www.ramaquotes.com