Bridging Traditions: Insights from Christian Meditation and Tantra of India and Tibet

In a previous essay, I have explored the nexus of Christian meditation and Buddhist traditions of nonduality, namely Mahamudra and Dzogchen, as well as Chan/Zen. Here, in this rather long essay, I would like to explore the evocative and fertile ground of dialogue between Christian meditation and the pan-Indian episteme of Tantra, a potent and sophisticated technology of ecstatic self-transcendence with ancient roots in the indigenous culture of India (Bharat) and subsequent flourishing in Kashmir and Tibet. I would do so with reference to two systems of Indic Tantra, one northern and one southern, and the Buddhist Tantra of Tibet with its Indian roots that I am familiar with. While the distinction between northern and southern Indic Tantra is valid, it is important to note that they both share many commonalities and overlapping concepts. As such, I would be simply referring to generic tantric ideas and practices in my essay without always making a hard and fast distinction between northern and southern Tantra. As Buddhist Tantra does exhibit specific and particular characteristics in both theory and practice, I would highlight them as needed.

Tantra of India

Tantra can be historically identified as “… a syncretistic, popular, and highly esoteric stream of Indian spirituality hat draws its sustenance from a wide variety of sources.”[1] As a holistic system of physiological, psychological, and spiritual training, I see Tantra drawing upon the totality of Indian spiritual and philosophical genius from the ancient Vedic Samhitas, early Upanisads, Brahmanas, and Aranyakas, to classical frameworks of religious integration and innovation such as Samkhya, Yoga, and the the various Vedanta systems of praxis.[2] Scholars generally date the beginnings of Tantra to around the 4^th century C.E. though debate remains as to whether Hindu or Buddhist Tantra came first. My personal view is that Buddhist Tantra came later as evidenced by its apparent assimilation of concepts and images from a pan-Indic amalgam of religious expressions quite alien to the form and content of the early Buddhist texts as recorded in the Pali Nikayas and Chinese Agamas. It seems to me far more likely and natural that Hindu Tantra evolved out of its own indigenous religious sources rooted in the village communities of rural India.

The central notion in Indic Tantra is the process of spiritual evolution from delusion to enlightenment conceived as realization of infinite pure consciousness and energy. This process coalesces around the awakening and elevation of the human being’s innate psychospiritual energy known as kundalini. Crucial to this kundalini awakening is the initiatory potency of an authentically realized tantric master (guru), replete with their essential instructions on how to further nurture, grow, and perfect the human bodymind system to arrive at the culmination of tantric spiritual practice. The use of vocally resonant syllables strung together in a terse fashion, known as mantras, is prevalent in Indic Tantra. Mantras universally employed across tantric lineages include those from the ancient Upanisads such as soham (“He I am”), tat tvam asi (“That you are”), and aham brahmasmi (“I am Brahman or the Divine”). These mantras point to the identity of the innermost self of a person and the divine consciousness that is the source, ground, and destiny of all things. Ontologically, there is substantial oneness of self and God — a philosophical position that can be termed monism.

Indian Tantric Ontology

While we can call this monistic ontology a teaching on nonduality, it is nevertheless rooted in an essentialist or substantialist notion of reality. As such, the sort of existence of the individual and God that we are dealing with here is a reified and inherent one. This means that both the person and God exist inherently as “things in themselves” and “from their own side” in an autonomous non-contingent way. This is certainly true of God even though the apparent separate existence of the individual is but an illusion (maya). That said, the individual does exist in an essentialist or substantialist fashion by way of its ontological oneness with the substance of God. In the final realization of enlightenment or liberation in Tantra, the individual is permanently identified with the Divine in a state of ontological and epistemological nonduality. In other words, we can surmise that the substance of the individual consciousness “merges” into the substance of God consciousness, insofar as the meditator realizes the substantial unity of both individual and God and the illusion of ontological separation due to ignorance. Given this, Indic Tantra’s metaphysics differs radically from the Christian one wherein God as Creator and the individual as the created are irrevocably, incommensurably, and eternally different in substance.

Indian Tantric Meditation

My discussion of Indic Tantra meditation is based on my personal training and experience in an authentic contemporary system of Tantra pioneered by the late Shrii Shrii Anandamurti (1921-1990).[3] With regards to tantric meditative practice, the mantra which is a string of Sanskrit syllables usually imbued with spiritual meaning plays a central and indispensable role. Here, the mantra is spiritually charged and enlivened by the initiatory power of the tantric master (guru-shakti), giving it a potency that it would otherwise not possess. This contemplative potency is what, in part, turbocharges the tantric disciple’s progress along the tantric spiritual path. The well-crafted structure of the tantric meditation methods together with the living presence and power of the tantric master are thought to contribute to Tantra’s efficacy and speed as a spiritual practice. Auxilliary practices such as pure vegetarian (sentient or “sattvic”) diet, yogic exercises (asana), vital energy regulation (pranayama), elemental control (tattva dharana), energy centre purification (cakra sodhana), spiritual study (svadhyaya), good spiritual company (satsang), all on the basis of a disciplined ethical life guided by yogic moral principles (yama and niyama) such as non-violence, are important for safe efficacious tantric practice. Taken together, they help to purify and strengthen the physical and mental structure of the tantric disciple in preparation for the activation and elevation of the kundalini.

The essence of Indic Tantra meditation rests on three pillars: (1) abidance in the Divine (isvara-pranidhana); (2) pure vision of all experience in the Divine (madhu-vidya); and (3) devotional surrender to the Divine in ecstatic contemplation (guru-dhyana). The first contemplative practice of abidance in the Divine (isvara-pranidhana) is deep, blissful, and serene abidance in the Divine by way of a spiritually-charged mantra. The main meditative practice is preceded by preparatory practices that relax the bodymind, release attachment to the world and the senses, and unifies attention into the single point located along the central axis (susumna nadi) of the subtle body, on one of the higher consciousness-energy centres (cakra), for example the heart, throat, or mid-eyebrow centres. Consciousness thus purified and focalized is systematically expanded into vast infinitude beyond borders by means of the empowered mantra in both its resonance and ideation. Initially conceptual to an extent, the contemplative practice progressively becomes subtler and subtler, until concept dissolves and gives way to direct immediate experience sheer boundless consciousness. The small “I am” of the individual expands and merges into the great “I am” of the cosmos, felt as infinite and devoid of demarcation or periphery. It can be described as a unitive experience.

Following from the first, the second contemplative practice is pure vision of all appearance in the Divine (madhu-vidya). This involves a less formal abidance in pure consciousness of the Divine in the course of everyday life and activity. Again, a mantra is used as a way of jump-starting the process of active contemplation. Before engaging in any activity or in perceiving any sensory and mental stimulus in everyday life, the contemplative mindfully remembers and silently intones their mantra that speaks of the nonduality of everything with the Divine. In so doing, an expansive and relaxed luminosity ensues in the mind of the contemplative, no longer fixated on the limited content of consciousness but resting egolessly in the deepest dimension of reality — pure divine consciousness, the ultimate subjective “knower” or “witness.” In a sense, this second practice is a mindful return of all sensory and mental involvement back into the source and ground of experience, beyond words and ideas, while actively engaged in life. This practice confers a profoundly subtle sense of brightness and sweetness to the flavour of everyday experience.

The third core practice is devotional surrender to the Divine in ecstatic contemplation (guru-dhyana). It is a devotional process of melting into the ecstatic embrace of the Divine, a state of the highest spiritual quality that can be realized in this very life. In Indic Tantra, such devotional practice takes the form of what is termed guru dhyana, which is the practice of restive attentional flow directed towards and streaming into the spiritual master. While visualizing the tantric spiritual master in a specific posture identified with the supreme consciousness of God at one’s crown centre, the meditator progressively enters into blissful and ecstatic union with their Beloved in the physical appearance of the guru. In time, the physical appearance melts into effulgent light that engulfs and saturates one’s entire being, even as one’s sense of physicality and mentality dissolves without a trace. There remains a sweet loving blissful expanse of effulgence and presence beyond all ideation and words. The contemplative’s  ordinary and everyday consciousness dissolves into a nondual ocean of blissful consciousness without features, boundaries, or reference points. Nothing else remains. No words. No imagery. No phenomenological appearance of any kind. Some call this “objectless consciousness,” though this term fails to capture the full immensity and richness of this “non-experience.” Traditionally, this realization is called nirvikalpa samadhi or “non-attributional cognitive stance or unification.” This state is considered the pinnacle of contemplative experience in this very life. Psychophysiologically speaking, the spiritual energy of the kundalini is thought to make a quantum leap from the eyebrow energy centre to the crown centre, dubbed the “thousand petalled lotus.”

Beyond that lies the integration of such sublime consciousness with the warp and woof of everyday life and consciousness. It is better to describe this integrative process as the subsuming of everyday consciousness into the pinnacled consciousness of the Divine, allowing the fullness of divine consciousness to become fully embodied and actualized moment by moment in life. This seamless oceanic flow of divine consciousness beyond formal and informal meditation is known as sahaja samadhi or “spontaneous and innate cognitive stance or unification.” With sahaja samadhi, perfect effortless and egoless awareness open like space and wordlessly blissful is fully realized. Life is meditation and meditation is life. Everything is experienced as sacred and luminous, purified and stainless.

Tantra of Tibet

Buddhist Tantra originated in India but flourished and evolved in the Himalayan regions particularly Tibet as an integral part of the esoteric or Vajrayana (Diamond or Thunderbolt Vehicle) school of Tibetan Buddhism. Vajrayana is so called by virtue of its presumed speed and efficacy of praxis for the attainment of a Buddha’s enlightenment or Buddhahood. Historically, Tibetan Tantra has its roots in India, and its beginnings are shrouded in some obscurity given the pan-Indian episteme of Tantra cutting across Buddhist and Hindu cultural spheres. As mentioned earlier, there is debate as to which came first: Buddhist or Hindu Tantra? Nevertheless, suffice to say that Tibetan Buddhist Tantra has particularities that make it different from Indic Tantra even though they share certain common features, such as a quasi- or fully panentheistic cosmology.

Unlike Indic Tantra, the Tantra of Tibet does not adopt a theistic outlook based on the substantialist and monistic notion of God. Rather, Tibetan Tantra endorses the classical Buddhist atheistic outlook but with a difference: the privileging of a deeper and subtler dimension of reality underlying the coarser realms of sensory and mental experience that mimics the Divine as ultimate ground of being but without personal creative agency. Cosmologically, Tibetan Tantra can be described as quasi-panentheistic rather than truly panentheistic given its disavowal of the concept of a creator God. While Tibetan Tantra does not endorse the concept of a universal creator God, it nevertheless espouses a similar concept on a smaller scale, in relation to the individual sphere of experience. Here, Tibetan Tantra imagines the individual mind to be the source of all reality for that specific individual, insofar as reality can be understood as felt or experienced reality. In other words, ontology (what is real) is subsumed into epistemology (what is experienced). For Buddhists, it makes no sense to talk about what exists ontologically divorced from what can be experienced. If something cannot be experienced or lies outside the orbit of experience, then it makes no sense to posit its existence or otherwise. Hence, while Tibetan Tantra eschews a universal creator God that is objectively real for all observers and lies outside empirical reality in its own right, it nevertheless asserts the genesis of the world of experience for each individual person by way of the processes of emergence and dissolution of phenomenological appearances out of, through, and into the various levels of the mind.

Tibetan Tantric Psycho-ontology

Central to Tibetan Tantra is the concept of the subtlest clear light mind inseparable from subtlest energy that constitutes the fundamental ground of individual consciousness. According to this view, the mind consists of three levels: coarse, subtle, and subtlest. Coarse mind is the everyday consciousness of thinking, feeling, perceiving, sensing, emoting, willing, and desiring replete with all associated memories, and imaginations — the totality of what we call the psyche. Subtle mind is usually dormant when coarse mind is functioning but is activated once coarse mind dissolves into its ground during meditative unification of attention. Subtle mind is where deep imprints and seeds of psychic habit patterns are “stored” and where they reside. In Tantric meditation, particularly during advanced practices of Highest Yoga Tantra, three progressively subtler layers of subtle mind are catalysed, namely the minds of white appearance, red increase and black near-attainment. These mental experiences correspond to the flow of subtle liquid energy drops (bindu) into the heart centre of the meditator. The entry of the white energy drop into the heart centre corresponds to the mental experience of white appearance; the entry of the red energy drop corresponds to the mental experience of red increase; and the conjoining of the white and red drops corresponds to the mental experience of black near-attainment. The subtlest level of mind is what is known as subtlest clear light mind, the fundamental ground of consciousness out of which the entirety of mental and sensory experience emanates, within which it subsists, and into which it dissolves. Once activated, this subtlest clear light mind is the basis for all advanced Highest Yoga Tantric meditations for the realization of the dharmakaya (truth body), sambhogakaya (enjoyment body), and nirmanakaya (emanation body) of a Buddha. In fact, these three “bodies” of a Buddha are enlightened counterparts to the three levels of mental activity aforementioned: coarse, subtle, and subtlest.

Tibetan Tantric Meditation

The aforementioned discussion paves the way for our exploration of Tibetan Tantric meditation. While the intricate details of such meditation practice is beyond the scope of this essay, it is possible to delineate several core principles and techniques of practice in relation to the two umbrella levels of Tibetan Buddhist Tantra: Lower Tantras and Highest Yoga Tantra. Lower Tantras comprise collectively Performance, Action, and Yoga Tantras, differentiated by way of the extent to which external rites are conjoined with internal contemplation in meditative practice. The proportion of external ritual practice progressively decreases as one moves from Performance to Action to Yoga Tantras.

All classes of Tantra offer techniques to employ and harness sensorial bliss as a skilful means of realizing the emptiness of inherent existence of persons and phenomena but at distinct levels of difficulty and depth. The Lower Tantras are able to employ and harness less challenging levels of bliss while Highest Yoga Tantra is able to do so at the most subtle and challenging level. For example, the first three classes of Tantra respectively utilize the sensorial bliss of gazing at, smiling at, and holding hands with the attractive Tantric consort visualized as an enlightened deity or buddha-figure. The sensations of bliss evoked through these visualizations are then employed to generate a singularly-unified mind that powerfully penetrates into the view of emptiness, conjoining the energy of bliss and the wisdom of emptiness in a single moment of consciousness. With Highest Yoga Tantra, the sufficiently-mature and prepared contemplative is able to utilize the intense blissful sensations of sexual union with the visualized enlightened consort to elicit that singularly-unified consciousness that realizes emptiness nondually. At this level of practice, the consciousness that realizes emptiness is far more profound and powerful than the mind ordinarily unified by way of Sutra or Lower Tantra methods. As such, the burning up of mental afflictions and their imprints rooted in self-grasping ignorance is far more efficient and effective. This methodology unique to Highest Yoga Tantra is called the “union of bliss and emptiness” for the eventual generation of the “union of clear light and illusory body.” In the Lower Tantras, the core methodology employed is called the union of “nondual profound clarity” — the union of an enlightened self-esteem or identity (divine identity) with clear visualization of oneself as the enlightened buddha-figure (clear appearance), all seen insightfully as empty of inherent existence. The experience of exquisite bliss suffuses these approaches. The end goal is the realization of the enlightened body, speech, and mind of a Buddha, though only Highest Yoga Tantra is able to lead to this final outcome while Lower Tantras, because of their less powerful techniques, can only result in the tenth bodhisattva ground (penultimate state of enlightenment) at best.

As essential pre-requisite for effectual Tantric practice, ethical purity by way of guarding the three sets of vows namely the vows of liberation, vows of altruistic compassion, and tantric vows is indispensable. These vows are necessarily accompanied by the disciple’s training in the three principles of the path, namely (1) renunciation — the definitive intention to emerge from samsara (cyclic repetitive suffering and their causes); (2) bodhicitta — altruistic and compassionate desire to become enlightened in order to best benefit all sentient beings and thence engaging in the relevant practices to do so; and (3) correct view of emptiness — achieving indubitable unmistaken realization of the nature of reality as emptiness of inherent existence.

Highest Yoga Tantra is extraordinarily complex in its structure and dynamics, requiting the deepest level of commitment and greatest degree of rigor from its practitioners. Central to Highest Yoga Tantra (and in fact all classes of Tantra) is the quintessential practice of guru devotion specifically in the form of guru-yoga or union with the guru. For it is in and through the Tantric guru perceived as the buddha that the wisdom energy and blissful blessings of the Tantric lineage is transmitted to the disciple, conferring the potencies of deep inner transformation.

Highest Yoga Tantra has three variations classified according to their respective emphases of practice: (1) Mother Tantra; (2) Father Tantra; and (3) Nondual Tantra. Generally speaking, Mother Tantras emphasize the practice of clear light (emptiness) while Father Tantras emphasize the practice of the illusory body (blissful energy). Nondual Tantras place equal emphasis on both clear light and illusory body. That said, all three Tantra classes employ the union of clear light and illusory body in tandem and see them both as essential to the accomplishment of buddhahood. While the process of contemplative mechanics may differ, they all lead to the same stages of realization and finally the same enlightenment.

Highest Yoga Tantra comprises the (1) stage of generation wherein one trains in generating oneself as the enlightened deity while holding divine identity and clear appearance, residing within the enlightened cosmos (mandala) of that particular deity — all of which are visualized to the finest degree of clarity, acuity, and accuracy, first as life-sized and eventually as nanoscopic versions encapsulated within tiny spheres of coloured light; and the (2) stage of completion wherein one trains in eliciting various subtle levels of blissful energy through complex visualizations, vital-energy control (pranayama), mantra recitations, and with or without yogic sexual union with a consort, that becomes the blissful wisdom consciousness capable of penetratively realizing emptiness of inherent existence at the most profound and potent level. One progressively traverses the stages of the path of Highest Yoga Tantra through the union of clear light and illusory body at increasingly purified levels, finally attaining the non-learner’s union of buddhahood.

Praxeology of Christian Meditation

Praxis is the constructive collaboration of theory and practice such that theory comes alive in practice and practice dynamically feeds into theory in a reiterative loop. Praxeology, as I term it here, is the theory of praxis from a meta-perspective. It seeks to examine and explicate a meta-theory of praxis in order to better understand how praxis occurs and what makes praxis better. Here, I wish to explore the praxeology of Christian meditation by fleshing out the structure and dynamics of Christian meditative practice in the light of Indic and Tibetan Tantra. In other words, I ask the crucial question of how and in what way the Tantra of India and Tibet can contribute to the synergistic theory and practice — praxis — 0f Christian meditation. My view is that this effort would significantly enhance our understanding and application of Christian meditation given the relative paucity of information on methodology of practice in the teachings and writings of its founder, Fr. John Main, OSB.

Indic Tantra’s Gift to Christian Meditation

First, Indic Tantra could contribute from its first pillar of “abidance in the Divine” (isvara-pranidhana) the contemplative pedagogy of sensory withdrawal as precursor to meditation proper. Such sensory withdrawal occurs in three distinct stages: (1) attentional withdrawal from the world at large through mindful ideation and imagination; (2) attentional withdrawal from the sense of bodily perception through deeper mindful ideation; and (3) attentional withdrawal from all activities of the mind itself to single-pointedly rest on the sheer luminosity and empty knowing of pure consciousness itself. Once attention is placed restively on a specific centre of consciousness-energy (cakra), the mantra is resounded inwardly and quietly in a relaxed, open, expansive, and undistracted way from the resting place of that cakra in question. With each resounding of the mantra in synchrony with each inhalation and exhalation of the breath, the contemplative ideates on the expansive melting and merging of that sheer luminous conscious knowing into the infinite boundless pure consciousness that is the source and finality of the body, mind, and the entire cosmos. The practical steps and nuances of enacting attentional withdrawal in the three modes stated above are best learnt from a Tantric contemplative trained and skilled in these methods. The same can be said for the actual technique of expansive merging of one’s sheer luminous consciousness into the infinite pure consciousness of the Divine. Suffice to say that the applicative resonance of the mantra is crucial in this process of expansive mergence resulting in nonduality of personal and cosmic consciousness beyond all constructed bifurcation and boundary.

Secondly, Indic Tantra’s second pillar of “pure vision of all appearance in the Divine” (madhu-vidya) can ground Christian meditation in the ebb and flow, warp and woof of everyday activities and relationships. This is accomplished by means of the intonation of the mantra prior to every volitional activity and from moment to moment while in open contact with every sensory perception of everyday living. With a non-reactive, open awareness in every moment, no matter what is happening and with whatever sensory object one’s consciousness is engaging, the meditator can mindfully apply the mantra in one’s heart to each and every experience. Such a fluid and processual resonance of mantra enables one to envision each moment of experience as the effulgent display of God’s creative love and presence. Nothing and no one is excluded from the ambit of this flowing resonance of mantra, applied without any force or pressure, haste or tension. A relaxed and smooth vibration of the silent mantra permeates the entire space of consciousness of the meditator, where all phenomenological appearances in all moments of experience are completely suffused by blissful pure awareness that is of God, evoked through resounding the mantra. Connecting to the infinite presence of God by way of the mantra in everyday life takes us one big and helpful step closer to prayer without ceasing.

Thirdly, Indic Tantra’s third pillar is the most impactful and essential contribution to Christian meditation practice, given the centrality of its heart of devotion that infuses the entire practice with a profound attitude of self-forgetful adoration and surrender. With “devotional surrender to the Divine in ecstatic contemplation” (guru-dhyana), the meditator soulfully channels all the beams of their attentional energy towards their intended desideratum (telos) of Christ Jesus. This meditative practice is less an effortful striving for concentration but more an effortless surrender of fixation on plurality of mental and sensory objects, with concomitant devotional flow of volition and attention towards the Divine, our true Adiguru or primordial master. As such, the tenor of this practice is light and luminous, and its flavour sweet and magnetizing. From moment to moment, the totality of one’s mind is gradually dissolved into the vast expanse of blissful luminosity that the Divine embodiment exudes. Time, space, body, mind, self and world collapse into a singularity of oblivion before plunging deep into the limitlessness of blissful luminous cognizance without reference points. All words cease. All images gone. Nothing remains, Yet a radically ineffable Presence beyond all notions of “this” or “that” is alive and active, effulgent and creative beyond any kind of calculus. The unit becomes cosmic: nondual union of the contemplative as lover and Christ as beloved is actualized, even as Christ the divine lover gratuitously suffuses and embraces the contemplative into Himself in self-giving love and grace.

Tibetan Tantra’s Gift to Christian Meditation

Apart from Indic Tantra, Tibetan Tantra can uniquely offer several fresh insights and practical enhancements to the practice of Christian meditation. First, the Lower Tantras instruct us in the powerful practices of (1) union of divine esteem and pure appearance; and (2) nondual profound clarity where realization of emptiness merges with realization of mind’s natural luminosity. These two practices can be incorporated into Christian meditation as follows.

(1)    Lower Tantras

As for the union of divine esteem and pure appearance, the Christian contemplative first dissolves one’s ordinary sense of self-identity, which is the afflictive ego deluded about its own existence as autonomous and inherently real. This can be done via a process of somatic visualization and sensorial retraction leading to a palpable sense of self-dissolution into a spacious clear expanse. This clear expanse is none other than the felt experience of the empty selfless “self”— the visceral sense of the absence of inherent existence of person and phenomena. Then, out of this spacious clear expanse arises the Christian contemplative as a luminous radiant being with the pure appearance of their deity and master, Jesus Christ. Simultaneously holding the identity of oneself as being the deity, Christ himself, while sustaining the visualization of one’s physical appearance as that of Jesus, which is pure and immaculate, clear and radiant, is the powerful practice of the union of divine esteem and pure appearance. Such practice plants within the Christian contemplative’s mindstream the seeds of the final fruition of becoming fully like Christ. That final fruition of Christ-likeness is none other than what Buddhists might call the fully enlightened and perfected state of buddhahood.

The practice of nondual profound clarity goes a step further. While maintaining clear visualized appearance and divine esteem, the Christian contemplative analyses this enlightened form and identity as being completely empty of any shred of inherent being, One sees and knows the utterly contingent nature of such an enlightened form and identity, realizing the sheer emptiness or absence of inherent being devoid of clinging. The act and moment of concurrently holding the view of emptiness and the clarity of divine appearance and identity is thus termed “nondual profound clarity.” Here, the term “profound” points to the profound realization of sheer emptiness; while the term “clarity” refers to the clear visualized appearance of oneself as the deity—Christ—that is one’s true and deepest identity. The term “nondual” means that the Christian contemplative visualizes the dissolution of one’s divine body into the vast spacious expanse viewed in the light of emptiness of inherent being, And while re-emerging as the enlightened form of the deity of Jesus Christ, one unobtrusively holds the view of emptiness of inherent being, free from extremes of existence and non-existence. There is thus a sense of lightness, non-clinging, and non-conceit in that very practice of empty enlightened self-visualization. Such practice plants within the Christian contemplative’s mindstream the seeds for full actualization of the simultaneity (nonduality) of the truth body (dharmakaya) and form body (rupakaya) of the enlightened Christ-like state.

(2)   Highest Yoga Tantra

Furthermore, Highest Yoga Tantra’s generation stage and completion stage practices can offer Christian meditation a significant depth and richness of practical wisdom. Such practical wisdom can enhance and deepen the pragmatics of Christian meditation by way of (1) dissolution of ordinary identity and appearance of the egoic self to re-emerge as a new identity replete with a pure appearance, following deep immersion into reality that is emptiness of inherent existence; (2) union of blissful awareness evoked through various sensorial pathways with unmistaken realization of emptiness of inherent existence in a single cognitive moment; and (3) union of clear light awareness and its intrinsic play of subtlest energy known as the illusory body, in advanced stages of meditative practice. Method (1) above belongs to the generation stage of Highest Yoga Tantra. On the basis of first mastering the generation stage, one is then able to engage in the challenging and intricate completing stage practices exemplified in methods (2) and (3).

First, prior to actual incantation of the mantra in Christian meditation, it can be immensely helpful to spend some time in settling the body, speech, and mind in a state of ease and relaxation that is clear and wakeful. Once there, the Christian contemplative can commence the process of progressive dissolution of their ordinary identity and appearance through systematic visualisation and ideation. This process has several phases: (1) calling prayerfully upon the Lord to pour forth blessings that shower upon the contemplative, which are meditatively absorbed into their body and soul. These rays of blessings then gather and absorb into the heart of the contemplative. Divine rays of light then emanate from the heart outwards to dissolve the gross form of the contemplative’s body into pure brilliant light. The body of light then withdraws in the form of light rays re-absorbing into the heart. The heart is envisioned as a sphere of light that gradually melts and implodes into its very nucleus infinitesimally. One is fully immersed in a vast expanse of clear light emptiness, a luminous and aware space without reference points or boundaries. This is known as the truth body of enlightenment (dharmakaya). Having abided in this spacious luminous expanse for some time, one feels a natural flow of compassion that radiates outwards in all directions like light rays. As this happens, one blissfully re-emerges out of clear light emptiness to take a new and sanctified shape and form. This emanation of a sanctified divine body and identity happens in two substages: (1) as a sphere of rainbow light, pure and blissful——this is the enjoyment body of enlightenment (sambhogakaya); and (2) as the divine appearance of Jesus Christ made totally out of rainbow light that has coalesced into form in a precise and particular way——his is the emanation body of enlightenment (nirmanakaya). At the same time as this emanation process, the contemplative ideates upon one’s new identity as nondual with that of Jesus Christ. In other words, one contemplates the deepest Christic union that is possible and that the apostle Paul describes and extols, for example, in Galatians 2:20, Galatians 3:26-27, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:3-8, and Romans 8:38-39. Jesus himself points to such union in John 15:4-5:

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Once the contemplative has generated themselves as the sanctified form and identity of Jesus Christ, they can intone as many times as they wish the Christian meditation mantra “maranatha.” Father John Main, in his writings, advised silently intoning the mantra form the heart, with equal emphasis and duration on each syllable of “ma-ra-na-tha.” Furthermore, one can intone the entire mantra with the inhalation while ideating that one is receiving into oneself the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit. With each exhalation, one can simply release and relax into open presence that is unconstricted and spacious. The vibrational frequency and rhythmic pulsation of this holy name can draw the contemplative even deeper into silence and awareness. If desired, the contemplative can repeat the process of dissolution into sheer emptiness and re-emerging in their sanctified form a few more times. There is no need to rush through this process, spending as much time as possible on the immersive dharmakaya experience. Once satisfied, the contemplative proceeds to intone the mantra for the rest of the formal meditation session. In this mantra intonation, what is essential is absolute fidelity and simplicity, free from expectations and attachments of any kind. No complicated striving for some imagined experience or outcome, but naked and faithful  awareness in the present.

Secondly, beyond the aforementioned level of Tantra-informed Christian meditation practice, there are more advanced levels and nuances of practice reserved for those mature contemplatives who are well-trained in the method. The first advanced level involves meditative elicitation and employment of blissful energies and essences naturally present but yet to be activated within the contemplative’s subtle physiology. This phase of practice is known as the union of bliss and emptiness. In Highest Yoga Tantra. Only a general outline of this practice will be given here, as the process is best learnt directly from a qualified teacher skilled in the methodology. Using specific visualizations of the energy channels, winds, and drops (essences) of the subtle physiology, concurrent with breath control and application of inner pressure on specific energy centres, the contemplative evokes powerful sensations of bliss of various degrees of subtlety and intensity. These different degrees of bliss stem from the “melting” of energy drops located at energy centres along the central energy channel as a result of intense meditative inner fire (tum-mo) generated at the navel energy centre. Such powerful blissful experiences are naturally single-pointed, without mental distraction, and free of conceptual movement. Undistracted blissful awareness is thus employed to realize the emptiness of inherent existence of person and phenomena, resulting in nondual blissful cognizance of emptiness in a single cognitive moment. Initially, the realization of emptiness by blissful awareness is still mediated by concept. As the realization matures, conceptual meditation melts away and slips into direct unmediated realization of emptiness, nakedly and freshly. This insightful experience is a deeply transformative and liberative event, capable of weakening or eliminating defilements of attachment, aversion, and delusion and their corresponding seeds from the contemplative’s mindstream. This is because the consciousness that directly perceives the reality of emptiness is the subtlest clear light awareness that is the deepest dimension of one’s being. This subtlest clear light awareness is activated due to the union of bliss and emptiness that was performed and mastered earlier. By nature nondualistic, subtlest clear light awareness nondually realizes emptiness in a blissful expanse beyond words and concepts.

Thirdly, at the highest level of Tantra-informed Christian meditation practice, the contemplative now has direct unmistaken experience and realization of the union of bliss and emptiness. This most advanced phase is known as the union of clear light and illusory body. At this point, all mantra intonation ceases. The contemplative enters and remains in the deepest silence possible. By the power of direct non-conceptual realization of emptiness inseparable from subtlest clear light awareness, the contemplative enters and abides in the fully-qualified realization of reality. This eradicates subtler and deeper seeds of defilements until it finally removes even the subtlest imprints of ignorant reification in the mindstream. But prior to that happening, the contemplative meditatively re-emerges in their divine sanctified form and identity (realized as empty) out of that blissful expanse of clear light conjoined with emptiness. This sanctified divine form is known as the illusory body. The illusory body, made out of the dynamic play of the subtlest energy of clear light awareness,  is initially “impure” or not fully devoid of defilements and their seeds and imprints. Eventually it becomes “pure” once all defilements, seeds, and imprints have been eliminated by the power of repeated immersions into clear light blissful emptiness. When this happens, the contemplative accomplished full enlightenment—termed non-learner’s union—and arises newly as a buddha replete with all three enlightened  bodies of dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya. In Christic terminology, this state of buddhahood can be reframed either as (1) the realization of complete maturation into the fullness of Christ, the perfection of Christ-likeness in this very life; or (2) a penultimate realization in this life that closely resembles full Christ-likeness but remains somewhat incomplete from the Christic point of view.  For such completion of the journey, God’s pure grace is essential for the final leap into the perichoresis dance of love of the Triune Godhead. This is a relational spirituality entailing devotional nonduality that conceivably lies at the final horizon of Christic liberation and enlightenment.

Conclusion

This essay has delineated in some detail the particular Indic and Tibetan Tantric contributions to the theory and practice of Christian meditation. It is my hope that such dialogical and phenomenological explorations would serve to break down barriers to interfaith dialogue and fraternity and enhance the creative fruitfulness of intercontemplative co-engagement. In these times of of increased fragmentation and division between cultures, nations, faiths, and peoples leading to conflict and war, it has never been so timely and salient, if not urgent, for a new rapprochement between faiths and peoples so as to collectively build a new and better world where all can live and flourish in love, mercy, justice, harmony, and fraternity. For the actualisation of this vision, interfaith and intercontemplative c0-learning and collaboration is in my view a divine gift to be received and a divine blessing to be celebrated with open arms, hearts, and minds.

NOTES:

[1] Chris Kang, The Tantra of Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar: Critical Comparative and Dialogical Perspectives (Calcutta: P. R. Sarkar Institute, 2017), p. 343. See also Georg Feuerstein, Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy (Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, 1998), pp. 1-31; and Teun Goudriaan, “Tantrism in History,” in Sanjukta Gupta, Dirk Jan Hoens, and Teun Goudriaan (eds.), Hindu Tantrism (Leiden/Koln: E. J. Brill, 1979), pp. 13-46.

[2] See Kang, Tantra, pp. 277-342, for a fuller discussion on these classical influences on Tantra, especially in its contemporary formulation exemplified by the teachings of eminent though controversial tantric guru Sri Sri Anandamurti (1921-1990).

[3] For a scholarly exposition of Anandamurti’s Tantra and how it can be justifiably deemed an authentic disciplic lineage of Indic Tantra, see my doctoral dissertation published as a book The Tantra of Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar: Critical Comparative and Dialogical Perspectives (Calcutta: P. R. Sarkar Institute, 2017). Shrii Shrii Anandamurti is the spiritual appellation of Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar.