An Indian thought system that impinged slightly
on Theosophy was a Hindu and Buddhist sect known as Tantra.
The cult, which still exists today, aims at stimulating the
body’s energies and funneling them into a great force
that carries the seeker toward spiritual fulfillment.
Although most Indian cults posit asceticism as a path toward
enlightenment, Tantra espouses ecstasy, the sexual quest to
mystically reunite two deities who were sundered at the time
of cosmic creation. Tantra teaches that before creation, the
male and female gods Shiva and Shakti were fused in cosmic
oneness. But at the birth of the universe they were separated,
and their parting symbolized the subsequent duality of all
things on earth. Tantra strives to rediscover the divine unity
and know thereby the enlightenment and ecstasy of the gods.
The sect’s methodology involves performing certain rites,
including some consisting of prolonged sexual intercouse between
a man and woman seeking the same spiritual goals.
Nevertheless, Tantra is less orgiastic, in the usual sense,
than highly disciplined. For example, great emphasis is placed
on breathing exercises called pranayama and on gaining control
of such physiological processes as body temperature, heart
rate, and the reflexes that trigger ejaculation. Other disciplines
include meditation and the use of mantras, short syllables
such as “om,” which are used to concentrate the
body’s energies.
Like other Hindus, Tantrikas believe that body awareness and
control put one in touch with the “subtle body,”
an entity composed of channels for vital energy. The subtle
body is also believed to house seven energy centers called
chakras, which lie along a continuum from the base of the
spine to the crown of the head. Also at the spine’s base,
it is said, lies the coiled, sleeping snake called kundalini,
a symbol for the goddess Shakti. Tantrika practice supposedly
awakens the serpent, who begins ascending toward the crown
chakra. As it rises, Kundalini vitalizes each chakra until,
at the summit, it unites with the crown chakra, symbolizing
the god Shiva. The coupling of the deities is thus made complete.
Another path toward this union is the Tantrika rite of chakra-puja
in which several couples participate in sexual rites. Partners
are chosen at random, and according to the teachings of the
Tantrikas, sex is performed as a sacred ritual, without the
ordinary encumbrances of love or even passion.
The Theosophists did not embrace Tantrika sexual methodology.
But Charles Leadbeater, was intrigued with Tantrika sex, as
well as with the sect’s other rituals and beliefs. He
based his book, the Chakras, on the Hindu notions, given special
emphasis in Tantra, of the subtle body and its seven energy
centers, and the managed to introduce those ideas into Theosophy’s
eclectic mystical stream.
Leadbeater was introduced to Tantra in 1915 by a former pupil
who had joined a sect that was known as the Ordo Templi Orientis
(Order of the Templars of the East), whose pursuits featured
Tantrika sex. |
Q: The longest word in the English language,
as many a schoolkid will tell you, is "antidisestablishmentarianism."
So, what's wrong with the schoolkids?
A: They're only repeating what they've been repeatedly
told. The actual longest word in most unabridged dictionaries
is the 45-letter tongue- twister "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis,"
a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica
dust, says Ohio State University linguist Richard Janda, co-editor
of the forthcoming Handbook of Historical Linguistics. Lucky
for the kids, this won't be on any spelling tests, nor will
the previous length-winner of the 20-plus-volume Oxford English
Dictionary, "floccinaucinihilipilification" (29),
meaning "the action or habit of estimating something
as worthless." Lucky too for the spellers, English is
not one of those poly-synthetic languages, says Janda, with
huge numbers of prefixes and suffixes that add increments
of meaning practically limitlessly, and with words commonly
growing as long as English sentences. According to the Oxford
dictionary, antidis... means "Properly, opposition to
the disestablishment of the Church of England." From
the kids' point of view, at least the word's pronounceable,
right up there with Mary Poppins' "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
Q: We humans are certainly groupies. Do the groups we
belong to bring out the best or the worst in us?
A: In groups, egged on by others, we become more
stressed and tense, mentally error-prone and given to rowdiness,
says David G. Myers in Social Psychology. In group discussions,
our views tend toward polarization, fostering mutual hostility
and suppressed dissent. "No wonder we celebrate those
individuals -- minorities of one -- who, alone against a
group, have stood up for truth and justice. Groups, it seems,
are baaad."
Yet, like our ancient ancestors, together we lean on one
another for support and sustenance, often accentuating each
other's positives, as when in groups we run faster, laugh
louder, give more generously. Teamed up in self-help sessions,
alcoholics kick the bottle, the obese lose weight, the depressed
gain spirit. Out of devout communings, healthy souls may
grow.
"We had, therefore, best choose our group influences
wisely and intentionally," Myers says.
Q: What does it take for the world to disappear before
your eyes? Think optics, eyeball jiggle and Jurassic Park.
A: Start with the flip-flop optics of your eyes'
lenses actually painting the world upside down on your retinas.
To compensate for this inversion, your body's map on your
brain is also upside down -- keeps the map in synch with
visual space -- says State University of New York neurosurgeon
James Holsapple. "In this sense, your brain is hanging
by its toes in your cranium!"
Now do something bizarre and put on a pair of image- inverting
glasses, so immediately the world seems to have done a 180-degree
somersault. Not much fun. You stumble over everything, can't
walk, shoot pool, read your e-mail. But just wait. Within
about a week -- still with it? -- your brain learns to adjust.
Things still appear upside down, says Hope College psychologist
David Myers, but you can walk comfortably, reach out and
grasp objects. In studies, glasses wearers have even ridden
a motorcycle and skied the Alps. The brain re-maps, so to
speak. Now take this one loony step beyond, Holsapple poses,
and fit on gear that perfectly stabilizes images on your
retinas, by compensating for your eyeballs' natural restless
jumpiness. Now within just 10-20 seconds, the image simply
vanishes, and you're left staring at a gray field!
So it is necessary for an image to be sliding around or
changing all the time for us to SEE. "Like those dinos
in Jurassic Park -- that failed to see the troop of lost
campers because everyone is holding very still -- we too
require some amount of motion in the visual world for it
to be seen."
Q: How do you rudely cut in line and get away with it?
A: Get away with it maybe, just hope that Attila's
not queued there. From the book "Cheap Psychological
Tricks: What to Do When Hard Work, Honesty and Perseverance
Fail," by Perry W. Buffington, Ph.D., you brazen up
to cut in near the front, figuring folks there have almost
made it and won't see you as a threat. Plus, the line-headers
will likely be in a good, charitable mood by that time.
You'd think cutting in farther back would be easier, but
this is the "worry zone," where queuers fear investing
time only to be cut off near the ticket window. In one study,
three-quarters of midline or later cutters drew complaints,
compared to a quarter near the front.
Another tack, notes "Greta Garbage's Outrageous Bathroom
Book," is to request to cut in BEHIND someone near
the front -- totally ridiculous since it's no skin off that
person's nose, so on what grounds may this permission be
granted you? Which is exactly why this might work, leaving
the rearward folks flabbergasted.
Q: A surprising fact is that sunshine actually has weight.
How much? Is it good for anything?
A: "Weight" is a slight misnomer, because
weight implies mass, and mass can't move at the speed of
light (Einstein). But sunlight's fast- streaming photons
do exert a "radiation pressure," evident in space
dust being pushed backward from the surface of a comet and
lighting up as its tail, in the direction away from the
sun.
Figure this pressure at about 0.00000000048 pounds per square
inch, for an incident solar power of 0.1 Watt/ square centimeter
on a nonreflective surface. That's roughly a gram (1/454
of a pound) of sunshine falling on an area the size of a
soccer field, Yale physicist Janet Pan says.
Doesn't sound like much, but take it out into space, and
its effects are far from theoretical, where one day solar
pressure on large solar sails may propel people to distant
points in the cosmos. The gain of solar sails is they're
LIGHTweight, provide a sustained acceleration force with
speed building, and there's no fuel to carry.
Traveling really light.
Q: At the Dollar Auction party game, how much will people
pay for an everyday $1 bill? Would you guess $1.50? $2?
Even more? Just wait.
A: You say, "I've got a dollar bill here to
go to the highest bidder. I'll give it away for a penny,
2 cents, whatever, but there's one other rule: If you're
second-highest bidder, you don't get the greenback, but
also -- MAKE A NOTE -- you have to pay me the amount of
your losing bid."
Usually someone will venture, "OK, I'll give you a
penny for it." "Fine." Now a wall-hanger,
sensing an opportunity to make 98 cents, will offer: "I'll
see your penny and raise you one." Somebody else (or
the initial bidder) will think, "Hmm, why let this
person nab an easy 98 cents when I can put my hands on an
easy 97 cents?"
Soon the bidding will be up to a dime, then a quarter. Now
the second-place bidder will think, "I'll not only
miss the buck, I'll lose my 25 cents," and so be forced
up.
You might think this madness will end at $1, but this ignores
the spot that the runner-up bidder is in, having to shell
out 90 cents (say) and get nothing in return. "If I
bid $1.05, I'll win the bidding, and lose only 5 cents."
In games, bids as high as $3-$5 are not uncommon, says Allan
Teger in "Too Much Invested to Quit." In real
life, Dollar-Auction-like traps are everywhere, ranging
from arms expenditures ("We've already spent X billions
on this bomber, so we have to finish the job"), to
strikers staying on strike to make good on already lost
wages, even to our tendency to watch a bad movie to the
bitter end.
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