SIMILARITIES BETWEEN
TANTRA & TAOISM
Tantra and Taoism do have some similarities, although they are not the same. Both Tantra and Taoism originate from the East i.e. India and China and have been influenced by enlightened masters.
Saraha
Tilopa
Tilopa was known as Prajna Badra. Has six rules are: imagine not, think not, analyse not, meditate not, reflect not, and keep in the Natural State. “Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don’t try to figure anything out. Don’t try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.”
Lao Tzu
Based upon the three pillars, which are simplicity, patience, and compassion. When simple in thought and action, we return to the source. “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
Chuang Tzu
Each person has the right to seek his or her own salvation. “A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.” Inner strength from daring to live is to live life with no regrets. Throughly enjoy one’s life – as the saying goes, “live life to the max.” Many people due to conditioning are afraid to live an enriched life.
Osho
An enlightened master from India in the 20th century was a bridge between all mystical traditions and spoke widely on not only Tantra and Taoism but also on Sufism, Bhakti, Bauls, and Zen. “Be — don’t try to become”
Mantak Chia
Has a retreat in Tao Gardens Chiang Mai, Thailand. “Learn to start each day by smiling inwardly at your vital organs and thanking them for sustaining your life.”
TANTRA (from India)
Tantra is often referred to as the study of the spiritual. There are those who make it a way of life, basing their thoughts on the idea of being more spiritually awakened. The art of Tantra enables those who study it to dig deep, getting closer to awakening the soul and what is at the very heart of one’s being.
Accomplishment brings with it a feeling of peace, tranquillity, and true knowledge that is hard to accomplish in any other way. Those interested in Tantra will come to understand the belief that all life is sacred, from the smallest living thing through to all of humanity.
The essence of Tantra is love – of oneself and all others. If you imagine all life on the planet as being one, and that we are just a small part of it, then you are well on the way to understanding Tantra. If we break the word down, ‘Tan’ means expansion and ‘Tra’ means liberation. When you follow this path, you are allowing your mind to expand and encompass the feeling of being liberated.
Tantra is focused on relaxing into the body and getting ‘out of’ your mind. The important treatise called the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra has 112 meditations, which show you how to do this. Tantra says yes to life, it’s about living in the moment with presence. Tantra allows one to indulge but with awareness.
With Tantra at the heart of everything that you do, it’s much easier to feel love, no matter what the world throws at you. You will greet anger with love. Differences with love. Setbacks with love. It takes a lot of hard work to get to this point but those that do will agree that life becomes more joyful and relationships more rewarding. The realisation sets in that previous relationships were only on a basic level – we did not know how to feel the essence of the other person. Instead of complaining about your loved one’s differences, you will embrace them and appreciate every experience that you go through together. If someone tells you that Tantra is all about sex, then there is a misunderstanding. This is about the spiritual, not only the physical. In Tantra, nothing is good and nothing is bad. Indulge but with awareness. Awareness gradually becomes one’s inner master and eventually replaces the outer physical master.
TAOISM (from China)
Taoism is similar to Tantra in that it also works at the deepest level, harnessing the life force. ‘Tao’ can be interpreted as meaning ‘the way’.
Each has a slightly different approach, but they can work side-by-side perfectly. Taoism shows people how to make use of the life force to improve physical and spiritual health. It combines health, sexuality and the importance of Yin and Yang (similar to Shiva Shakti in Tantra). It also delves into the concept of Wu Wei (no action).
While Taoism is linked to the physical body, Tantra also begins with the body and then delves deep into spiritual consciousness. Taoism focuses on balancing the physical with the spiritual to give a state of harmony.
Tantra takes this same life force energy, using it as a pathway towards deep understanding and enlightenment. Forget prejudice, intolerance or bias and focus instead on acceptance. As you grow closer to the spiritual energy that is within us all, you should begin to experience life in a different and more fulfilling way.
We are shown how to handle our emotions without blocking them, acknowledging their presence and how they affect the body. The result is the perfect balance between body and mind.
Both Taoism and Tantra are techniques for gaining presence and awareness through various practices such as meditation, massage, Tai Chi, Qi Gong and even through daily practices such as walking, cooking cleaning etc. Anything that is done consciously becomes meditative.
Tantra and Taoism state the concept of duality in the universe – Ying Yang in Taoism and Shiva Shakti in Tantra. Duality can manifest as a range of opposites, such as male and female, night and day, good and evil etc. Both involve the concept of oneness, which comes through transcending duality. In Taoism, this is called Tao and in Tantra, this is called Samadhi.