Great-Bliss-Tantric-Sex-and-the-Path-to-Inner-Awakening

in the later ones they are so brashly prominent they astonish their readers. These Tantras
introduce deity yoga visualization practices with deities in sexual union. Deity yoga, which was
the main practice in all previous Tantras, becomes the first of two stages called the Creation
Stage. The second, the Completion Stage, is introduced, which includes practices for meditating
directly on ultimate reality to quickly attain enlightenment. For the first time, sexual yoga
(Karmamudrā) is presented as a requirement for attaining enlightenment, and the highest
meditative practice is Clear Light Yoga (Prabhāsvara Yoga). The Guyhasamāja Tantra, the most
important of the later Yoga Tantras, stresses the inherently erotic qualities of buddhahood. The
practice of performing transgressive social actions to liberate you from stifling cultural behaviors
is elevated to an important principle of daily conduct. They arose around the early 700s.
Yoginī Tantra
In the fourth and highest class, the Yoginī Tantras (Goddess Tantras), the main instrument for
attaining enlightenment is the wisdom and bliss of feminine energy. The retinues of the deities of
the maṇḍalas are predominantly female, and the bestowal of power in the consecrations is often
performed by female deities. Female deities are regarded as inherently superior to males in their
ability to bestow bliss, which gives the Yoginī Tantras an edge over the earlier Tantras. This
class is the first to introduce the Wisdom Consecration with a physical consort, in which you use
the secret power of orgasm to attain liberation. Strongly influenced by the Hindu Śaiva Tantras,
they include the popular fierce deity practices of Hevajra, Cakrasamvara, Vajrayoginī, and many
others. The retinues of their maṇḍalas, the ḍākinīs, are also fierce; they wear jewelry made of
cremation ground bone ornaments, and fervently consume human flesh and blood.
The Yoginī Tantras present the philosophy of the Innate (Sahaja), the key doctrine of the
Vajrayāna. In this class of Tantras, as historian David Snellgrove writes, “Hindu and Buddhist
notions are often intermingled” in their philosophy. They teach the most powerful and fastest of
all Tantric paths, presenting the Creation and Completion Stages in an integrated system called
the Four Yogas (Catur Mudrā). The two principle texts in this class are the Hevajra Tantra and
Cakrasamvara Tantra (The Circle of Bliss Tantra). The Yoginī Tantras, first revealed around the
late 700s, quickly dominated the Tantric Buddhist world, leading many to inner awakening.
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