A direct, face-to-face confrontation with fear and doubt. In essence, all fears arise from Ignorance of the Self.
of bonded existence is clearly apparent. That fear of transmigration fueled by the insidious doubt of misperception plays an important role in stimulating reflective awareness which is in itself is the prelude to the recognition of the OneSelf.
Implicit in the notion of the spiritual quest is the assumption that confrontation with the unconscious part of the psyche can be at once unpleasant and terrifying, yet it is also a necessary preliminary for real spiritual growth. Following this line of reasoning, I suggest that the tantric path, especially in certain aspects of nondual Śaiva Tantra, is a spiritual discipline that found a new way to challenge one of the most powerful emotional dynamics: fear and its consort, doubt. In this light, fear and doubt can be a powerful stimulus for undertaking tantric sādhanā, which is the means to reduce contraction of consciousness and the cause of bondage, consequently leading to the expansion of consciousness (unmesa) and liberation (mokṣa).
Liberation is thus approached through the paradigm of surrender; in other words, spiritual growth involves a direct, face-to-face confrontation with fear. As such, the emotion of fear becomes a principal driving force for undertaking a tantric path of heroism. In this way, fear functions as a central organizing feature in a dynamic construction of tantric identity. The tantric practitioner is called a Hero(ine) (vīra), a brave one who sets on a dangerous expedition to the Self. The heroism of the vīra lies in the conquest of the fear one is compelled to face in the outer realm and in the deepest recesses of one’s identity. Such confrontation endows a Hero(ine) with steadfast conviction that becomes a heroic and personhood-defining feature and leads a Hero(ine) significantly further, to the ultimate knowledge of the liberating power of the God/dess Bhairava/Bhairavi.
It is ultimately the fear of losing one’s identity that is the thinnest but most powerful veil/cloak that must be incinerated in the fire of intent. All other fears derive from that all-powerful debilitating perception. Fear is then a powerful motivation for undertaking tantric sādhanā, which is the means to reduce contraction of consciousness and the cause of bondage, consequently leading to the expansion of consciousness (unmesa) and liberation (mokṣa).
Tantric sādhanā is a spiritual quest for self-discovery of one’s own true identity.
Our true Self, the simple essence of freedom, is buried under the symphony of perceptions of limited awareness. The freedom from this ultimate fear, epitomized in the figure of Bhairava, does not belong to the category of otherworldly, transcendent experience that is inaccessible to mortals; rather, it turns out to be just the opposite. Fear is a sacred emotion because it results from the most tangible and profane experience given to individuals entangled in everyday human affairs: the fear of transmigration. This is in accordance with the fundamental tantric presupposition that continuously makes an attempt to unify the two apparently contradictory spheres of reality, sacred and secular. Abhinavagupta clarifies this dichotomy in the following words:
‘Bhairava is so called because He is born in the Heart (of consciousness) by the reflection aroused by the cry of fear of transmigration’ (Tantrāloka 1.1, in Dyczkowski forthcoming). It is at this crucial moment when the awareness of existential fear of saṃsāra comes into being that the sense of the supernatural overwhelming presence of Bhairava’s great power is attested. Of special significance is the emphasis put on the “Heart” the affective center of conscious life. Moreover, the actual experience of fear that is aroused by the dreadful realization of transmigratory existence is reflected upon as Bhairava’s bestowal of grace.
of bound existence is clearly apparent. It should be noted that fear of transmigration plays an important role in stimulating self-reflective awareness, which in itself is a prelude to the recognition of the One Self.
In other words, to be afraid of saṃsāra is to be blessed by Consciousness itself.
For Śaiva Tāntrikas, the intensity of fear is valued as a source of spiritual power. In these emotional states, even the most negative ones, the ongoing agitation of thought-constructs is suspended. As a consequence, expansion of consciousness takes place. For example, theSpandakārikā , a seminal text of the Spanda school of nondual Śaiva Tantra, provides examples of many of these “negative” emotional states in which the sense of fear, identified with the “Bhairava state,” becomes activated.
According to this text, one enters the “Bhairava state” in the moment of great fear, generated by the sight of a lion or python: when all mental activities come to a dead stop, the vibration of consciousness (spanda) is established (Singh 1980: 102–03). This passage illustrates that the emotional meaning of fear has been adopted by Śaiva Tantra exponents as a practical device for reaching a spiritually significant level of experience. The function of fear, thus, is to assert the possibility of achieving identification with the supreme reality, represented by Bhairava.
The tantric Hero(ine) is the exact opposite of the ideal, pure Brāhmanical person. He or she goes to the cremation ground, the place of the greatest danger and the epitome of death, decay, and terror. The Karavīra cremation ground is the most sacred place in the tantric universe because it is believed to represent the material location of our deepest fears. Of course, the cremation ground is our own awareness, and it is in that interiority that the purification of perception happens.
The act of interiorization places the outer site of the material cremation ground as a symbol for the inner one. In this way, the cremation ground, sanctified and personified as the Goddess, becomes the location of the Hero(ine)’s heart, the seat of both intense feeling and consciousness. The description of the Goddess is elucidated in the following quotation from verse 82 of theCidgaganacandrikā :
Youaresaidtobethecemetery,whichfreeofthefluctuatingactivityofthe mindisthecremationgroundwithintheHero’sheart.Difficulttobehold, yetyouarethemeetingground,theeverilluminedlightwhichconsumes everything.Thedeadly,terrifyingcremationground,consideredbyordinary awarenesstobeanimpure andpollutedplace,becomes heretheseatof emotional freedomandpurityof consciousness.Itisa symbolicrepresentation oftheluminouslightof consciousness,freed fromthedarknessof mentalagitationand thought-constructs feedinguponthe conditionofcontraction thatbelongstoignorance andbondage.
The emergent features that constitute heroic personhood.
The profile of the tantric Hero(ine) is that of a person of Heart, endowed with unwavering intent, a fearless attitude, firm conviction, and spiritual potency. He or she always finds the courage to combat the powers of doubt — the contraction and bondage by which they are beset.
The vīra’s journey passes through many rites of passage. One of the most important is when one confronts the unconscious part of the psyche, in which fear is the core emotional component. The practice of heroism that aims at the dissolution of all distinctions is characteristic of the wider practice of nonduality that had been taught by Śiva Himself as the highest method of achieving liberation. In asserting the irreducible nonduality of consciousness pervading all states and conditions of being, the tantric adepts exclude any notion of duality that results in fear.
In such a context, spiritual practice itself becomes an inner inferno in which the struggle against duality takes place. The dualistic perception that causes fear is considered to be the enemy that must be destroyed and supplanted with the vision of nonduality grounded in the Self. In this process, the sense of duality merges into the nonduality of the Self, bringing forth the reconciliation of all opposites.
Become a vīra. Seize the wealth of salvation through conviction/courageous constancy and strength.
This is a bravery that involves overcoming habitual tendencies of the unconscious latent impressions (saṃskāras, which are accumulated in the storehouse of past actions (karma), residing there in potential form as the germs of transmigration (saṃsāra). These buried germs are able to surface again during each lifetime of human existence on earth, sprouting new entanglement, yielding the fruits of still another destiny of delusory performances and rewards. Saṃskāras are unconscious complexes responsible for casting the shadow of ignorance forged by the impurity of determined thought-constructs.
Wandering through places of darkness and differentiation is part of a Vira’s vow – to be free.
Since they reside in the unconscious sphere of consciousness, it is difficult to take hold of them. In the analysis of psyche rendered by the Tantras, one is supposed to get rid of saṃskāras through purification of thought-constructs. In the nondual Śaiva Tantra tradition, the impurity is not a material substance, as in the dualistic traditions, but, on the contrary, it abides in thought only. Therefore, all rituals are performed to eradicate the impurity residing in the mental sphere. Purification implies cleansing of the impurity of determined thought-constructs, which directly leads to the uprooting of the seeds of latent impressions from which the impure thought-constructs spring forth. The tantric idea of liberation rests on the fact that the impure thought-constructs are the cause of contraction (of the consciousness), almost always through fear.
That contraction of consciousness results from the fear experienced by the individual, who tries to protect his limited identity by continuously recreating it. The contraction of consciousness connotes bondage and is the exact opposite of the expansion of consciousness and liberation. This experience culminating in true and pure identity is liberation. Additionally, the Mahārthamañjarī defines the condition of a liberated yogin in terms of the “absence of fear,” which is additionally described as being free from limitation caused by the perception of duality. The state of “absence of fear” is characterized as a sudden expansion of one’s own consciousness that brings forth the realization of the essential nonduality that pervades all states and conditions. This condition is imperishable.
The “awakening” derived from conviction and strength is also connected with the discovery of power in the subtle body. Abhinavagupta provides us with a detailed analysis of this process in his commentary on the Parātrīśikā Tantra, when he speaks of the vital energy abiding in the middle canal of suṣumnā that becomes diffused as an enlivening factor in the form of aliveness to all parts of the layered bodies of the individual. (Oh, that would be kuṇḍaliṇī!)
The Heart of Consciousness is the locus of both emotive power and supreme liberated consciousness.
Conviction/courageous constancy and strength dwell in the Heart. For those in whom these attributes have not reached their full potential, the energy acquired from the sense-perceptions builds up only in the sense-organ itself. But those in whom prāṇa and apāna become submerged in the middle channel (suṣumnā), the energies of conviction and strength automatically connect with the śakti the spiritual enlivening force that stands behind all physical, mental, and emotional activities of the sādhaka. The inner powers triggered by successful practice of “rising kuṇḍaliṇī” are all part of a heroic ethos that constitutes Tantrism, wherein the emergent features that constitute heroic personhood are evident, shining forth from the Heart.
The profile of the tantric Hero(ine) is that of a person of Heart, endowed with unwavering intent, a fearless attitude, firm conviction, and spiritual potency. He or she always finds the courage to combat the powers of doubt — the contraction and bondage by which they are beset. Look in the mirror of your own self-reflective awareness.
Do you see a vīra looking back? Fear
Article excerpted/adapted from work of Aleksandra Wenta; Between Fear and Heroism