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

efore we can trace the introduction and development of these techniques in
the Western world some very important questions remain unanswered. A
path, it must be presumed, leads somewhere. Toward what destination does
the left-hand path finally lead the walker who follows its obscure and
difficult way? And why do adherents of the sinister passage subject
themselves to such outlandish physical, mental and spiritual exertions?
In a word, the end of the path is liberation.
There has been much confusion in the West caused by uninformed
speculation asserting that the right-hand path and left-hand path differ
because of their goals. This is not true. As we have attempted to clarify, only
their methods differ. The erotic and physically enacted left-hand path and the
non-sexual, sheerly symbolic right-hand path ultimately aim to reach the
exact same final destination, namely moksha, or liberation. Inevitably, the
followers of each path have tended to consider their route the best way but
the intent of liberation is the same for both. But despite this shared final
destination, many right-hand path Tantrikas look down on the left-hand path
adept as a sex-mad voluptuary, just as many sinister initiates ridicule the
follower of the Daksina Marga as a timid prude. But it is often said by adepts
of both methods that the Vama Marga, due to its extreme methods, is the
faster way to liberation.
In the list of essential principles that opened this section, we stated
that the left-hand path is "a way of liberation and illumination in this
lifetime." These are rousing words, but without placing them in some sort of
tangible reality, they are no better than poetic abstractions. Liberated from
what? Illuminated to what realization?
We have already indicated that the left-hand path adept seeks to
liberate him/herself from passive subjection to the illusory nature of maya,
thus freeing consciousness from the binds of self-created delusion. This
assault on normative mentation is conducted on several fronts, engineered by
a series of self-created shocks to the system.
Within the subtle body, sexually animating the kundalini serpent
opens the initiate's third eye, allowing awakening to a more complete
awareness of reality prohibited by the usual sleeping state of mankind. In the
physical body, the sacralization of the orgasm during ritual sex provides
access to an altered state permitting a piercing rending of the veil, a
transcendent ecstasy that opens the gateway to direct perception of the
totality of being. Through the performance of sexual magic the shakta and
shakti can alter the substance of maya, revealing the flexible nature of the
world of visible manifestations, and the hidden extent to which mind can
participate in the divine function of creating new realities.
By breaking taboos and overcoming self-generated obstacles, the
140
initiate is liberated from the spell cast by the hypnotizing forces of social
control and social identity, reaching a level of freedom from such concerns
that allows him or her to step far outside the boundaries of the conditioned
human. By embracing the horrors and joys of physical manifestation with
equal fervor, the sinister adept is further freed from the windowless prison
cell of either/or dualistic thinking. That transcendence of the human reaches
its pinnacle during the veneration of his/her sexual partner as a divine being,
and the initiate's own Eros-fueled ecstatic transformation of personal self into
divine Self.
In all of these actions, the adept is liberated by realizing that every
level of reality is his or hers to play with at will, a serious game and a joyful
discipline that continually remanifests the left-hand path Tantrika's
consciousness at ever higher strata of being. That much is in accord with the
traditional teaching of the left-hand path. Although we have found great
power in most of the traditional practices of the left-hand path, and
recommend them to our readers, it is the next step suggested by many gurus