TANTRIC-QUEST-Encounter-with-Absolute-Love

asked her all sorts of questions, which she graciously answered.These were pleasant moments, a sort of game,which I found necessary and which opened large swaths ofreality for me. Sometimes we had discussions while weprepared the dal, cutting onions, picking over the lentils,roasting the curry powder.Often, at these times, Devi talked to me about her lifeand asked me about mine. The atmosphere was intimateand relaxed. Devi showed nothing of that aspect of impressivepower I saw in her now and then. We were a womanand a man seated in a hut, completely occupied with thepleasure of conversation.One day, I asked her what distinction she made betweenthe Tantric Shivaic teaching, which sees consciousness asthe receptacle of the universe, and Tantric Buddhism, whichrejects consciousness as an illusory form. It was the debatebetween the Self and the Selfless that had mobilized greatenergies and had been the subject of polemics and councils,and grounds for mutual condemnation and rivalry. Devilaughed, taking on the vague and tender look she had eachtime she told me a story about her life."After leaving my master, I decided to go meditate in acave, alone. Certain spots in the mountains, many days oreven many weeks by foot from any village, have been knownto ascetics for thousands of years, and often one becomesonly one more occupant of a cave where dozens of sageshave lived. Sometimes, one finds Buddhist sutras engravedin the stone, sometimes Sanskrit letters or mantras. Thecaves are often found in a place in the mountains thatresembles a hive, and it happens sometimes that manydozen ascetics are living within the range of each other's87