classical yoga & tantra

simplified for you and me.

Nataraj enjoys the dance of creation.

Let’s start with Classical Yoga. The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali is widely regarded as the most authoritative text on yoga. Codified by the Sage Patanjali approximately 2,200 years ago, the Sutra contains 196 succinct aphorisms that outline the basis and techniques of classical yoga. Patanjali's wisdom forms a solid foundation for understanding the workings of our human minds. The sutra builds a brilliant map for clarifying consciousness and limiting the incessant self-referential thinking of our ego-minds.

Classical Yoga emphasizes how to overcome the obstacles to spiritual vision. Its philosophy suggests that the obstacles to clear vision are inherent in being in an embodied form. It offers practices for overcoming those obstacles in order to see the empty radiance of life. Its emphasis is on transcendence — getting out of the bondage of living a life in form.

Tantric Yoga arose about 1,000 years after Patanjali’s Sutra. Tantra is the yoga of engagement and relationship. In contrast to Classical Yoga, Tantra embraces life and the body directly, seeing the body and the world not as obstacles to be overcome, but as legitimate foundations for yogic practice and inquiry. Tantric practices involve direct study of the human body-mind-energetic system and explore all aspects of embodiment.

Tantra encourages wholehearted engagement in the world. Its philosophy encompasses all of nature as a direct expression of Universal Intelligence. Tantric thought puts great value on being alive and existing in form.

Tantric thought proposes a continuity and inextricable weaving of individuality and universality. We are encouraged to recognize ourselves for the wholeness that we are — universal and individual beings. Tantra is about knowing, about recognizing and living that directly and with every cell of your being.

Tantra refers to the inextricable weaving of unmanifest intelligence into the creativity and form of all manifest nature. It is all one glorious field. We are it and we are swimming in it.

Different from the classical perspective, according to Tantra, there can be nothing to overcome. “All of this…” (manifestation, body, mind, everything) is nothing but That” (an unending weave of life and universal awareness).

Where is the problem? There is a problem. The problem is in our individual perspective. We usually do not perceive this to be the truth. We are confused about our own nature.

Then tantra tells us the big news: You are perfectly primed to experience this directly for yourself…if you pay close enough attention.

Using the metaphor of the ocean as the field of Universal Awareness, we can loosely illustrate the differences between Classical Yoga and Tantra as follows:

CLASSICAL YOGA: Our task is to still the waters in order to see the nature of the ocean; to be able to see the full range of consciousness without the disturbances of waves, seaweed, fish, and all the other distractions. Classical yoga posits that it is the distractions that limit our vision and keep us from experiencing the full depth of the sea and realizing that saltwater is the fundamental reality.

TANTRIC YOGA: I am the ocean. The ocean includes all this seaweed, fish, and unpredictable waves. Let me see it for what it is. The process of inquiry in Tantra is inclusive of the waves and the fish. The assumption is, “All of this is nothing but that.” Therefore, eliminating some of this is no solution for the problem of not seeing it for what it is.

According to Tantra, the ocean doesn’t say, “If only I could get rid of this messy seaweed and all these waves I could get busy being the ocean.” The waves and the seaweed are just as much that as anything else. Tantra says, “Just see it for what it is”.

The discriminative practices of Classical Yoga help us to discern and clarify the workings of our minds, while Tantra offers methods for expanding that clarity into all aspects of a life lived in fullness.

Thank you for reading!