Because Tantric art is meant to serve a religious, rather than an aesthetic purpose, and because artists believed that they acquired spiritual merit by copying prototypes, the art has not greatly changed over the centuries. The emphasis is not on style but on iconography. The earliest known motif is the naked Siva prototype, with phallus erect, who sit in a yoga posture. First seen in the Indus valley civilization of the third millennium B.C. , its corollaries are the representation of fierce deities, the protector gods, who are often portrayed with blue or black skin and set in furious scenes suitable to the deep-seated demonism that formed the Himalaya’s aboriginal faith. Another characteristic motif is the ever-popular Mithuna, or lovers, sometimes in sexual embrace.
Eileen Kernaghan: According to legends related to Mumford by Paju shamans, both Pajus and lamas in ancient times had extraordinary magical powers (among them corpse-raising and the ability to create landslides) which they made a habit of stealing from one another; and they competed in magical contests like the legendary competition between Milarepa and the Bon-po magician on Mount Kailas. The Gurung villagers assured Mumford that while the lamas have lost these powers, the shamans still possess them, though in diminished form. (1989:55-56) The Gurung shamans and the Tibetans who have migrated into Gyasumdo share a belief in earth spirits, demons (bdud) and clan guardian deities (btsan). Like their Siberian counterparts, the Gurung shamans conduct a ritual hunt and sacrifice animals as an offering to the spirits; and they function as a channel of communication with the spirit world. (Mumford 1989:8) read more: http://home.portal.ca/~lonewolf/shaman.htm image: http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/karlins/gateway-to-himalayan-art-rubin-museum9-14-10_detail.asp?picnum=3
Depicted in a variety of forms, these are known in Tibet as the “Yab Yum” or mother-father couple. A third anthropomorphic theme is the human-animal configuration , in which the deity appears as half-human and half-animal. An ensemble of these cardinal motifs and several other subsidiary symbols popular in the Himalaya is the Wheel of Life. First seen in the Gupta-perid painting at the Ajanta caves in India, the Wheel of Life sums up both pictorially and philosophically the Hindu and Buddhist view of life and the causes of human sorrow.
The religions and the art of the Himalaya are derived from those of northern and central India and remain closely allied to them, but the isolation- geographic hardship and vast spaces- have given the beliefs and the culture that expresses them a magnificence and mystery of their own. Like the hundreds of gods and goddesses of Hindu and Buddhist pantheons who aspire to the same divine ideals, the painted works express diversity and unity simultaneously.
"This symbolic caricature gesture entitled 'PLAYBOY NITHYA SPL' seems to be showing the attitude of the Tantric Nithyananda towards the CID sleuths questioning him. News on print media as well as the electronic media brings out news headlines totally unexpected of a swami or guru, with new charges being slapped against him such as his alleged involvement in smuggling gold, flouting of FERA/ FEMA regulations, possession of banned items like tiger skins, and skins/hides of leopards, spotted deer, wild dogs, etc., and a historic first for any godman of any denomination in the form of making his devotees sign Non-Disclosure Agreements on sexual activities that they are expected to perform in his Ashram. The author of this caricature says, "India is the land of many saints and gurus but not all of them are good. Very often, we hear scandals and fraud against these gurus. Swamy Nithyananda fraud is the latest addition in this regard. Last month a private news channel released a shocking scandal video, where Swamy Nithyananda was caught having sex with a top Tamil actress. This video sent shockwaves across India… Swamy Nithyananda or so-called Paramahamsa Nithyananda is known as the guru of Tamil Nadu. He has been very popular among people and he had significant followers. After the release of the video tape, people accused him fraud. He made them believe that he is a swamy.... at last he has arrested by police yesterday . . .!! Any way our poor people not going to stop believing this kinda poli saamiyars. . !!!"--- Read More: http://scene-india.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html
ADDENDUM:
Gerhard Heym: The literature of the latter sect contains only veiled allusions to the Tantra-cult. The older literature has been partly destroyed by the reformed sect; but its extant portions give us most frank and open commentaries on Tantra-practices, which are an invaluable aid in understanding goëtic literature in general. Prof. Grünwedel insists strictly on this, and holds that these commentaries alone enable us to comprehend the very subtle and diversified literature of the reformed Tibetan sect. As humanitarian and Buddhist phraseology is invariably employed to conceal the fundamental Tantric ideas, most Occidental scholars have failed to penetrate into the hidden meanings of the Tibetan writings and also into those of that part of the Tantra-literature written in Sanskrit. Read More: http://www.alexandrededanann.net/demonic_magic.htm a
"Many outsiders have had reactions to Vajrayana Buddhism similar to reactions outsiders have to gothic literature and culture. At first glance, Vajrayana Buddhism seems to be made up of evil, licentious, nihilistic demon-worshippers. This misreading of Vajrayana Buddhism is easy to make if one examines only the symbols of Vajrayana Buddhism without looking in to the philosophy behind it. Death and suffering are used in Vajrayana symbolism, not to encourage death and suffering, but to help people acknowledge death and suffering and to deal with it more constructively. The fact that Buddhism practitioners hold dangerous magical power is not because this is what they hope to achieve, it is simply an acknowledgment that the world is a dangerous place and that even Buddhist masters can sometimes falter and use their skills for malevolent purposes. Again, these sad truths are brought out in to the open, people are constantly reminded of them, they may even celebrate them, but this is not an endorsement of these truths but an attempt to deal with them constructively. When ..." Read More: http://www.vajraenterprises.com/!Tibet/vajrayana_goth.htm image: http://goindia.about.com/od/festivalsevents/ss/8-quirkiest-indian-festivals_6.htm
…In the Tantra-texts, and especially in the commentaries of the older Tibetan sect, Prof. Grünwedel has found a certain ritual, repeated again and again, which corresponds in striking fashion to the ritual preserved in the Etruscan inscriptions. This recurrence of similar ceremonials has proved to our student of comparative demonology, that the Etruscan ritual is not simply the subjective interpretation of a scholar, but is, in fact, an earlier manifestation of a widespread system of “black magic” the counterpart of which exists today in its most undisguised form in Tibet. In addition, the Tantras contain many similarities to the witch-cult of mediaeval times. The position of the witches at the altar, known from old prints, corresponds to that of the Tantric sorcerer; sacrifices of children occur in the West, and similar practices are commented upon in the Tantras ; witches that fly through the air are counterparts of the Oriental Dâkinîs, so important in the Tantra-system; the hearing of children, according to the Tantras, is tabu, and woman is therefore cursed – sentiments which are professed by the witches and sorcerers in the West. In tracing the origins of mediaeval witchcraft and sorcery, there is found evidence pointing to the fact that mediaeval Tuscany, the former home of the ancient Etruscans, was one of the centres from which these practices radiated. Read More: http://www.alexandrededanann.net/demonic_magic.htm a
"The Tibetan folk religion encompasses indigenous beliefs and practices, many of which predate the introduction of Buddhism and which are commonly viewed as being distinct from the mainstream of Buddhist practice. These are primarily concerned with propitiation of the spirits and demons of Tibet, which are believed to inhabit all areas of the country Folk religious practices rely heavily on magic and ritual and are generally intended to bring mundane benefits, such as protection from harm, good crops, healthy livestock, health, wealth, etc. Their importance to ordinary people should not be underestimated, since in the consciousness of most Tibetans the world is full of multitudes of powers and spirits, and the welfare of humans requires that they be propitiated and sometimes subdued." read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tibet/
rstand/bon.html image: http://cognitivetransformation.blogspot.com/…
These Hittite stone texts, according to our author, were set up by the Medes, the people who destroyed Nineveh and exterminated demon worship, the state religion of the Assyrians, in order to expose the cult in all its frightfulness as a warning to the conquering nation and also to the vanquished. By means of the bilingual system the conquered nation was addressed in symbols which were understandable, and which, as magic formulae, had now lost their efficacy. These formulae closely resemble the texts of the Etruscan inscriptions, and, like them, are revolting and horrible.
The Median part of these so-called Hittite inscriptions describes the battle against the powers of evil, indicating the nature of the cult that had been destroyed, but without giving details as to the ritual.( Gerhard Heym)
Read More: http://amamariesimard.tripod.com/id13.html
http://home.portal.ca/~lonewolf/shaman.htm
http://www.moodymanual.demonbuster.com/asianre1.html
http://www.vajraenterprises.com/!Tibet/vajrayana_goth.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tibet/understand/bon.html
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Judith Simmer Brown: All of this is done through the medium of Buddhist meditations, in their varieties of forms. But this is most explicitly described in the tradition of Tibetan tantra, which strategically invites psychological material directly into meditation practice and transforms it into wisdom. How are we to understand this “not accepting, not rejecting” way of working with the “shadow” in Buddhism? A most instructive example can be found in the life story of the twelfth-century Tibetan yogin, Milarepa, who began his fife in great adversity. His father, a successful and prosperous trader, died when Mila was still a small boy, leaving him and his mother and sister at the mercy of a greedy uncle. Read More: http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-EPT/simm.htm a
"A Naxi sorcerer, originally uploaded by mutikonka. This is the real thing. A man called Sungma Balung Choje was said to become possessed by a demon when he donned his ceremonial clothes. As monks chanted, he spat, graoned and shook as if in an epileptic fit, then shot off arrows to banish other demons. A native of Zhongdian, I wonder what he would think of his hometown being renamed Shangri-La to attract tourists. Bet he didin't foresee that." read more: http://drjosephrock.blogspot.com/2005_01_09_drjosephrock_archive.html
When the uncle stole their inheritance and forced them into servitude, Mila’s enraged mother insisted that he avenge his family’s honor. He apprenticed himself to a powerful sorcerer and learned to cause devastating hailstorms and pestilence. Returning to his village, at his mother’s urging he murdered his uncle’s entire family and then fled into the mountains. When he realized what he had done, he experienced great fear and regret, and sought a Buddhist teacher to repair his damaged karma. In the language of Jung, Milarepa became enmeshed in the flight from his shadow at the onset of his spiritual journey. His training with the great guru Marpa was fraught with great hardship and misguided intentions, as Marpa exacerbated his troubled student’s neurosis.Read More: http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-EPT/simm.htm
The most striking example came in Marpa’s command that Milarepa build a series of tall stone towers with his own hands. With each tower’s completion, Marpa insisted that Milarepa tear it down and return the stones to their original spots. Throughout this, Milarepa experienced great devotion, but never understood the great agony of the tasks his master set forth for him. Finally, as Milarepa contemplated suicide, Marpa gave him the teachings he sought and sent him to the remote and desolate caves of southwestern Tibet to do a lifelong retreat. Through this retreat, Mila successfully met his own shadow and reclaimed its offerings.
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