Tantra: What is the Illusion?
To the tantrikas (the practitioners of Tantra), the psycho-cosmological model of the universe created by Samkhya (the combination of Purusa (consciousness, spirit) and Prakriti (nature, matter, including human emotions) was good…as far as it went.
But now we are in 2025, and we realize that it but it didn’t go far enough…after-all, we are dealing with life, and this can be an illusion in many ways, until we uncover or at least have the ability to see things as they really are, i.e: vipassana = truth. With such little time, how do we get there? So many practices and beliefs are now available, as well as so many plant medicines, now readily available for even more maya if one only wishes to go the fast route to perceived consciousness, without the foundation of yoga.
The model for tantra was good, is good, because as in all spiritual realizations, the senses that show the world as it is present is just a thin application of what is really there, what is really going on. However, the Samkhya yogis didn’t realize that they were a victim of Maya; they failed to see deeply enough into the real situation. On top of Samkhya’s twenty-four principles of awakened intelligence were another twelve. Quite a lot, tantra is complex. Tantra is a complex system of meditations, and many are just at the beginning of their journeys…still on the physical plane.
Just above the great divide of purusha and prakriti sit the illusionary layers of Maya. Maya has several possible meanings, ranging from illusion to relative existence. Tantrikas believe that there are five forms of Maya. Above these manifestations of Maya are the three pure principles of existence: Sad-Vidya, Ishvara, and Sada-Shiva. Above these three pure principles is the ultimate reality of Shiva/Shakti. Bliss/Union. Us trying to create the divine while being “mundane.”
Shiva/Shakti can never be separated. They co-exist as one. They can be seen as two, depending on perspective, and which picture you are looking at. As we descend the left side of the human body down from Shakti, we unfold the subjective aspect of existence. As we descend the left side, down from Shiva, we unfold the objective aspect of existence. In Tantra we find a different view of God, the creator, and his creation, the world. We discover that God is the world and is also us; God is part of his own creation. We are part of God at the same time.
Interested, more intermediate students, especially students of Hinduism and Buddhism may find Georg Feuerstein’s book Tantra: the Path of Ecstasy to be helpful. The point of what we have explore is that, according to Tantra, the One unfolds into the Many. Liberation, then, is achieved when we traverse this path backward: from the seemingly many (beings, energies) we find in our everyday life, we go all the way back to the One. Focus. Concentration. A knowing of Oneness and of community.
Liberation, this finding the One behind the Many, is possible while we are in the body, thank-goodness. In fact, the body is a necessary tool to reaching this liberated state. Only incarnate beings can become enlightened and liberated. Not gods or demi-gods or spirits. Even the gods are jealous of humans; only humans can become truly free. The path to liberation is the Tantric Practices.
What kind of practices are you doing? Are you practicing? Curious on your experience with a lineage, a system, yoga, perceptions?