Abigail Sarah Bagraim

Tantra
My combined religious and artistic interests have led me to examine other means of connecting with metaphysical energies from other religious traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. In the lives of all human beings there are similarities in their patterns of pain and struggle, joy and achievement. It is as if we all have to play out these challenges for some larger purpose. Within Jewish mysticism, sexual symbolism is pervasive; just as the wedded state is the human ideal, so the Oneness of G-d is ultimately androgynous. Hinduism and Buddhism works towards overcoming the duality of our nature through intense physical and spiritual discipline. In all three of these disciplines the principle of unity is related to the continual tension and balance arising from the negative and positive (feminine and masculine) forces and energies which are present in all forms of life and of the universe. It is not surprising that all three deal with human sexuality, polarity and union. In my work I aim to reveal some insights into the Torah and Tantra, and their interrelationships. In essence, all are pathways for connecting to the source and to unity with G-d.

Tantra shares Hindu, Buddhist and Jain ideas. Its main theme is to enhance the physical sensations and to transform them into a vehicle for blissful insight. The aim is to have such tight control of the senses as to rise entirely above pleasure to a complete sense of illumination. Its adherents feel that the best way of knowing reality is to experience it oneself. The aids used by the Tantric devotee include mantras (incantations), yantra (mystic diagrams), mandalas (circles), kavachha (amulets and mudras (gestures).

Tantriks believe that there are 2 aspects of the ultimate Reality - the negative and the positive - embodied in the material world as the male and female. The ultimate goal of Tantric discipline is to conquer the principles of dualism in order to attain the final state of non-duality. The non-dual state is conceived of as Absolute Bliss and one way of achieving this state of non-duality is through the union of the male and the female. Like the Tantra, the Jewish mystical tradition claims that the act of sexual intercourse is one of the most intense spiritual exercises and is actually capable of allowing the aspirant to transcend the confines of his/her physical world. Both the Zohar (the Jewish mystical books which serve as a commentary on the Torah) and Tantric Yoga describe the creation of the universe in terms of a man and a woman experiencing mutual sexual orgasm during the sexual act. The Tantra says that we need to look back at the place from which experienced reality comes from. An event is not seen as something that started way back, but rather as something projected through ones experience into the present. Therefore, there is a continual act of creation taking place which is expressed in sexual ways with the yoni (vulva) continually giving birth as the male continually infuses his seed. All this is represented in the Shri Yantra. As one meditates on this diagram, one is witnessing the continuing act of creation.

The Jewish "G-d the Father" also has His female lover, the Shekhinah. The Zohar describes in vivid detail the lovemaking between the celestial "King" and "Queen" who constantly give birth to new energies in the cosmos. Tantra also speaks about how lovemaking is actually an essential divine act which has cosmic significance. Tantras divine male figure of time is called: Mahakala and the female is called Kali. The male energy is called Shiva and the female Shakti. It also speaks about the subtle snake Kundalini which sits in the perineum. By doing certain yogic and sexual postures, one can awaken the kundalini who will then begin her ascent up the inner central column of her spine. In this way the Hindu Tantrika hopes that the Kundalini shall ascend so often that it will be there almost permanently.

According to both the Tantra and the Torah the most important way in which the sex act elevates one into higher worlds of awareness, is that the couple have to engage in lovemaking with full attention. Carried out in the proper circumstances lovemaking can create the most ecstatic states of sacred bliss. Torah and Tantra both claim that underlying their major belief-systems is the fact that the cosmos is one entire organism and that every single aspect of creation is vitally connected to everything else. Even though we may feel that there is chaos and everything happens haphazardly; as we rise up on the Tree of Life we will begin to observe the unity and realise that we are intimately interwoven.

Meditation is another key factor which inhabits all three disciplines. The Hebrew term which has been used for centuries is devekut. This describes a state of mind whereby we move far away from our mundane everyday thoughts and become transported to a realm which is full of beauty and in which everything becomes meaningful. Its actual meaning is cleaving to the divine. It is not just a simple form of relaxation, although it does serve to calm ones thoughts, but a state of awareness which opens up to one the ecstatic wonders of the entire cosmos.


As the Tantra speaks about ones concentration, so too does the Kabbalah, which describes this ideal mental state as kawanah (the energy points on the body which respond to the "kavanah" are sephirot, for Jews, and chakras, for Tantriks). Both the Tantra and the Jewish tradition have a form of meditation which centres the mind on the letters of the alphabet. According to the Tantrikas, the sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet contain the vibrating essence of the whole of reality. Both the Sanskrit and the Hebrew alphabet are considered to be holy and therefore an infinite number of mantras exist which can be used. The 22 Hebrew letters and the 10 primary numbers are known to represent the 32 cosmic energy routes that underlie all of the universe. The Hebrew letters are said to have such power that as one makes various combination at different speeds one can reach a blissful state of awareness. While Tantra uses the shri yantra for meditating on, it also uses the erotic Indian art as a means of arousing and stimulating the senses to create a feeling of bliss and a possible aid towards enlightenment. The most important symbol of Jewish meditation is the Tree of Life which is a divine structure which shows the dynamic pulsating movement which underlies every animate and inanimate structure in the universe. One centres one's mind on the poetic majesty of this tree. On the tree are the 10 sefirot which are the 10 powers or qualities within G-d that He used in creating the world. These powers were visualised as bright spheres of light.

Abigail Sarah Bagraim, Email info@abigailsarah.co.za

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