CLASSICS 2K03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Anuttarayoga Tantra, Hevajra, Sand Mandala
30 Nov 2017
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Review session next week tuesday (not with benn) Two aspects: a physical form and a mental form. Tantra texts as ritual performances, some of their characteristics include: It is to track the power of samsara and turn it on itself. Practitioners enter and move along pathways through the mandala. Deities and participants are both male and female. Complete visualisation of external forms (images and icons) nd internal visualisations, mental constructs. Mandalas are best to be thought of as a spiritual place, and not as a static image. It is a mental discipline about concentration and emptiness/ impermanence. The colours of crushed stones or sand is meaningful, the images are created from texts and while they are creating them they are meditating on the mandala. The destruction of them enhances the meaning of impermanence. Special, symbolic use of language, in which buddhist terms were equated with aspects of sexuality: Male and female genitals= (cid:498)thunderbolt (cid:523)vajra(cid:524),(cid:499) and (cid:498)lotus(cid:499)
