3.7.12 Tantra: Use of asanas (postures) and mudras (hand gestures)
Description
This article is from the Magick Tantra FAQ, by Tyagi Nagasiva nagasiva@luckymojo.com, Catherine Yronwode cat@luckymojo.com with numerous contributions by others.
3.7.12 Tantra: Use of asanas (postures) and mudras (hand gestures)
Most teachers of Hindu and Buddhist tantra, as well as some
neo-tantra teachers, tell students that tantra yoga is
facilitated by the use of certain asanas (bodily postures)
while engaging in intercourse. They may also advocate the
use of special mudras (ritual hand gestures) while in
coition or as part of yoni puja or linga puja. To many
Westerners, the asanas seem odd or forced, but when one
understands that they grow out of the ancient tradition
of hatha yoga, in which the ability to attain and maintain
difficult body postures is part of a regimen of ascetic
disciplines, their application to in a sexual context
is more clearly understood. Likewise, the mudras assume
two contexts in light of Indian culture: they are gestures
made by the deities (and have hagiographic import in the
identification of deities in religious art) and they are
also gestures the devotee can make as part of a service
to a particular god or goddess. For an -- unfortunately
uncredited -- adaptation of a chapter from an undated
tantric text called Vamakeshvaratantra, describing
the use of the major Hindu tantric mudras, see
http://www.crl.com/~tzimon/Workings/mudra.html
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