I. VAMA MARGA Foundations Of The Left-Hand Path - staticfly.net

to a hidden kingdom in the Himalayas known as Mahacina. There, the ascetic
discovers no less a personage than the deity Vishnu, who has taken the form
of the Buddha himself, accompanied by several students. But to Vasistha's
horror, the bleary-eyed Buddha and his disciples are visibly drunk, naked,
and in an obvious state of sexual arousal.
Vasistha is scandalized to witness the Buddha and his pupils
brazenly indulging in perpetual intercourse with a number of ravishing
female companions. Beneath their wantonly disheveled long hair, these
women wear nothing more than gently tinkling bells which ring with the
erotic rhythm of their coupling. They are the graceful devis, whose sexual
embrace imparts the highest initiation.
Vasistha, outraged, lectures the Buddha on the error of his ways,
prissily fussing that his shameful actions contradict every holy teaching of
God and man. Had not the Buddha himself taught that kama (desire) was the
cause of all human suffering? The chuckling Buddha drunkenly refutes this,
observing that Vasistha is the one who is in error, for he has confused outer
appearance for reality. The intoxicated sexuality he and his disciples are
celebrating are ritual tools to illumination, the Buddha explains, and the
beautiful women whose bodies they enjoy are actually images of the Great
Goddess, consecrated through the secret Kaula initiation.
The Buddha then proceeds to induct Vasistha into the left-hand path,
instructing him in the methods of sexual illumination. Through the
celebration of sexual rites with the Buddha's enchanting consorts, Vasistha
achieves direct contact with the Great Goddess, She who has for so long
eluded him. In one flash of protracted, supernal delight, his body yoked to the
body of the Great Goddess in human form, the sage instantly attains the
liberation he sought in vain through self-denial for so many thousands of
years.
Extracted from the quaint imagery and regional specifics, the story of
the Sage Vasistha outlines the journey that awaits every magician of the lefthand
path. All who walk the sinister way travel from the familiar land of his
or her original provenance to a mysterious territory where all known
conventions are reversed and sexual ecstasy is revealed as the great
awakening force. In defiance of every puritan cult that would bridle the
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exalted power of Eros, the Adepts of the left-hand path embrace
unconditioned freedom.
Essential Principles Of The Left-Hand Path
Far from being the vague catch-all one might at first imagine due to so many
decades of misuse in the West, the phrase "left-hand path" is very specific in
its precise meaning, which will become apparent when we examine the
original Sanskrit phrase Vama Marga, from which it is translated.
And yet, despite this clear definition, attested to by well over a
thousand years of continuous use in India, the historical reality of the lefthand
path is commonly ignored in favor of modern fantasies that bear almost
no resemblance to the facts. To begin the task of correcting some of the
distorted perceptions caused by this state of affairs, we must address the lefthand
path on its own terms, by cleaving as closely as possible to traditional
sources. This method steers clear of the fashionable postmodern
deconstructionism so beloved of contemporary academics on one hand, and
the equally obfuscatory muddle-headedness of the typical occultist on the
other. Both camps have played their part in obscuring the true meaning of the
left-hand path's erotic gnosis.
One of the most basic elements of the perennial magical philosophy,
and one that we will emphasize in this book, is that words possess a power of
their own. By restoring a more accurate understanding of the words "lefthand
path", we aim to revive some of the lost power of this tradition of