Ritual

Tantric asana, or sexo-yogic
posture. Orissa, c. 18th century.
Gouache on paper.
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into it at will, mastery over the elements, and supernormal hearing
so that one can hear 'the grass as it grows'.
The ascent of Kundalini is accompanied by an experience of a
mystical light of various colours. The colours of the division of
Prana do not correspond on what we ordinarily associate with the
solar spectrum but are the arrangement of colours on a
supernormal plane. There is a similarity here to Goethe's analysis:
'Colours have a mystical significance. For every diagram that
shows the many colours is suggestive of primeval conditions
which belong equally to man's perceptions as to Nature.' 3
In recent years physiological scientists have been concerned to
find out whether restriction of awareness to an unchanging
stimulus results in a 'turning-off' of consciousness of the external
world, as it occurs in, say, the practice of meditation. Their
experiments have shown that when a subject is exposed to a
continuous visual input or an unchanging stimulus called a
'ganzfeld' (a patternless visual field) or a 'stabilized image', the
subject loses complete contact with the external world. This
phenomenon is, further, attributed to the structure of the central
nervous system. The results of the tiny electrical potentials
recorded on the electroencephalograph (EEG) have shown the
appearance of the alpha rhythm in the brain. Similarly, recent
studies of yoga also reveal that meditation is a 'high alpha state'.
Likewise, during the practice of Kundalini-yoga when attention is
focused in a state of one-pointedness by means of various
meditative techniques (repetition of mantra, concentration on
yantra, rhythmic breathing, etc.), the adept loses contact with the
external world. In consequence, experts conclude that meditation
is neither 'esoteric nor mysterious' but is a 'practical technique
which uses an experiential knowledge of the structure of the
nervous system' and hence is very much within the scope of
practical applied psychology. 4
Tantra teaches that the Kundalini Sakti can also be unravelled by
the practice of asanas, the sexo-yogic disciplines: 'One must rise by
that by which one falls.' Those very aspects of human nature which
bind us can be stepping-stones to liberation. In this discipline,
sexual impulses become a pathway for opening the realities of the
cosmos, pointing towards the oneness of the finite and the infinite.
The ritual of tantra asanas has developed into a formidable series of
psycho-physical practices to promote the type of discipline
conducive to meditation. In the act of asana, a man and a woman
unite, and its fulfilment lies in the realization of one's potential
with the experience of joy. During sexual union the adepts