søndag 30. november 2008

Thelemic Magick in the East and West

I can't say I know too much of the thelemic magick of Aleister Crowley. I have a couple of books on the subject ("The Magick of Thelema" by Lon Milo Duquette, "Gems from the Equinox" compiled by Israel Regardie, and "The Law is for All" by Aleister Crowley), but I have never practiced the path that he lays out simply because I do not see what good it could lead to.

But Crowley has some indirect relevance to my Kaula Nath Path, since it was Crowley that adviced the young Lawrence Miles, later to become Shri Gurudev Mahendranath, to pursue occult knowledge in India rather than in Europe.

Another connection is through the founding Guru of The Arcane Magickal Order of the Knights of Shambhala, Shri Lokanath Maharaj, that previous to the forming of AMOOKOS was an initiate of Kenneth Grant's so-called "Typhonian" Ordo Templi Orientis.

For those of you that do not know much about Crowley, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) became his propagating order for his "Thelemic Religion" after The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn became disfunced (The Golden Dawn was the magical society which gave Crowley his magical training).

So, there is definitely a crossing of paths between AMOOKOS and Crowley, but there is also clear distictions.

If the tree is known by its fruits, the path of Crowleys Western Thelemic Magick and the Kaula Nath Eastern Tantra Magick are two different species. They share some common features, but the fruits they produce are quite different, I think.

In "The Magick of Thelema - A Handbook of the Rituals of Aleister Crowley", Lon Milo Duquette writes in the beginning of the first chapter:

- - - - -

Chapter one: THE MAGICK OF THE WILL

"Magick is the Science and the Art of causing change to occur in conformety with Will."
- Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice

The above definition of Magick can be as misleading in its simplicity as it is in its complexity. The key word is of course Will, Thelema(1) in Greek, and according to this definition, any willed action is an act of Magick: brushing your teeth, walking the dog, or even paying your taxes.

Conversely any unwilled action is an unmagical act: reaching for a cigarette; ordering that fourth Martini; or any habitual or reactive behaviour that overrides the momentum of one's life focus could fall into the category of unmagical act.

Try as we might there is no escaping this simple fact: We are all Magicians and we are either competent or incompetent practitioners of our craft.

(1) Thelema; by the Greek Qabalah enumerates 93 as does Agape: Love.

- - - - -

This technical definition of Magick is true for both the eastern and western traditions. In fact, the term Magick, spelled with a "k", IS a technical term to distinguish it from the stage magic of showbiz people like Houdini and the likes.

The Thelemic Magick of Crowley and the Tantra Magick of the Kaula Nathas both work with the power of will and tries to cultivate and enhance it. But the theory, imagery and practice, and the aiming of this power is very different.

When I look at Crowleys life I find little in it that I would want for myself. He was very much a lonely person, a drug addict, and seemingly was not capable to love another human being, male or female. He was married several times and had many lovers, but it seems that he drove most of them crazy. Two of his women ended up in mental asulums, and another ended up as a prostitute. Some of his friends and followers died as a direct result of his magickal adventures or killed themselves after being involved with him.

This attitude towards life that he showed in deed and action seems to me contradictory to the eastern attitude of thelemic Tantra Magick. The most distinguishing feature is the attitude towards women. In eastern magick the women is revered as the embodiment of Ma, or the Great Mother. All women should be respected as ones mother or sister, and if a male tantrika wants to perform a ritual with a women she should be an initiate and treated like an equal. Every male should protect all women as if they were his mother or his sisters.

Not treating women as equal will eventually lead the tantrika to his downfall, which was the case with Baba Muktananda, a tantrika with some magickal skills but who misused young and non-initiate women in his performance of sex magickal rituals.

The ugly treatment that Crowley showed towards women, and the sorry outcome of his life prooves to me that his path was contradictory to the Kaula Nath Path. The aim of the Kaula Nath Path is to realize true peace, true freedom and true happiness in ones own life and being. When I look at Crowley's life I find these qualities hard to find and I do not think that he ever was truly at peace, truly free or truly happy.

There is an expression in sanskrit that I find significant and that is Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram, Truth-Goodness-Beauty. Rudolf Steiner, another western occultist that knew the importance of cultivating Will, says that in order to find truth you should look for these three marks. I think that a statement that shows a truthful insight, have a good or benevolent effect, and an inspiring beauty can be considered a healthy seed that will lead to true peace, true freddom and true happiness.

I think that all people who are thinking about starting a magickal practice should carefully inspect their teachers, acharyas or gurus and see if their lives have the qualities that you want to pursue for yourself. In my case, even though Crowley might be facinating, he does not have anything that I want and I consider his Magickal Path to be a road to unrest and nervous breakdown, restriction by insticts and the grand delusion of ego, and unhappiness and abuse. His written goals and ideals might express otherwise but of what I can see, this was the outcome of his practices.

The beauty of the Tantra Magick of the Kaula Nathas is of such profound character, and even if not all Knights of Shambhala displays these qualities of truthfulness, goodness and beauty in perfection, it is there in seed form, ready to be watered by our attention and devotion. Let us not be lost in Maya and Her Divine Play, but seek that which is Real and True. Magick is not the goal, it is the means towards the realization of the Self. Let us call upon Shakti to lead us to Shiva, and when the two are united: SVECCHACHARA!

As Shri Gurudev Mahendranathputs it: The Will to Love is the Law to Live.

fredag 28. november 2008

Sandhya Yoga Meditation

Sandhya Yoga Meditation is a yoga practice of centering into the heart, or core of being. It is part of the Anavopaya, or Kriya Yoga, of Trika Shaivism, ment to bring the sadhaka to the stage of Shaktopaya, or Jnana Yoga.

Anavopaya means the means of the sadhaka living in the state of duality. Here the sadhaka experience that he or she is different from the surroundings, identifying with the momentary and dual aspects of existence. "I am Mr. So-andso", "I am of this-or-that age", "I am wealthy", "I am poor", and so on.

In this state the sadhaka identifies his or her I-consciousness, or I-feeling, with the phenomena of his surroundings (wether internal, like thoughts, emotions and sensations, or external, like body, family and country). The sadhaka is not aware of his or her essencial state of being, which is experienced as the state of pure I-consciousness, or I-feeling.

But to experience, and with time getting rooted in the pure state of I-consciousness, needs some practical guidance for the forgetful. Because the loss of connection with I-consciousness is a process of forgetting, and the means of reconnecting is a process of re-discovering, or remembering.

When one reconnects with ones I-feeling one does not gain anything - a new knowledge or a new realization - because the I-cosnciousness is always there, shining within us. But it is not remembered and experienced.

By the grace of Swami Lakshmanjoo the science and the means of the path of self-rememberance is reveiled to the world, and the practice of Sandhya Yoga Sadhana made available to all.

(From Visarganath's notebooks 2006)

Hamsa Mantra

The Hamsa mantra is said to be the ajapa-gayatri of breath and to be coined together by the sound of incoming and outgoing breath. Some say it is to be recited as "so'ham", others as "hamsa", the meaning becoming either "That I am" or "I am That".

Shri Vamadev Shastri say that the so'ham mantra is the energizing and natural sound of breath, and that the hamsa mantra is the pacifying sound of reversed breath.

Shyam Sundar Goswami and others says that the hamsa mantra is to be preferred, and uttered "hung-sauh".

This latter argument is very interesting when one knows that the central mantras of Trika Shaivism and the Kashmiri Kaulas are "aham" and "sauh". It can seem that the hamsa mantra ties together these two central mantras into one. That is if you consider how the mantra is sounding and not as it is written.

We are told that the "ham" part of the hamsa mantra is aham (meaning "I") and representing Lord Shiva, and "sa" (or "sauh") representing Lady Shakti.

Another interesting interpretation, turning everything upside down, is that "ha" is also considered to be representing the manifested universe and "sa" to be representing Shiva.

Anyway, if one is to be diving deep into the mysteries of this mantra one will certainly have some realizations of the oposite aspects of nature and existence.

(From Visarganath's notebooks 2006)

tirsdag 25. november 2008

The Kaulas of Kashmir

Swami Lakshmanjoo was the last living master of Kashmir Shaivism (also known as Trika Shaivism), and a great devotee of the Kashmiri Kaula Acharya Abhinavagupta. Here is what he say about the Kaulas in Kashmir:

The Kula system teaches you how you can live in caitanya (universal Consciousness), the real nature of yourself, in the act of ascending and descending. While you rise from the lowest to the highest you realize your nature, and while you descend from the highest to the lowest you also realize your nature.

"In the Kula system, there is no break in the realization of your own nature either in the highest or in the lowest cycle. This system, therefore, teaches you how you can live in totality."

In fact, the word kula means “totality.”

In the practice of the Kula system, you have to realize the totality of the universe in one particle. Take one particle of anything that exists in this world; in that one particle is to be realized the totality of the whole universe. The totality of energy is found in one particle. Everything is full of one thing and one thing is full of all things.

The difference between the Pratyabhijna system and the Kula system is, that the Pratyabhijna system teaches you how to realize your own nature in one place and exist there, reside there. While the Kula system teaches you how you can rise from the lowest degree to the highest degree, and all the while, experience the nature of your Self on the same level and state. Shiva, which is realized in prithvi tattva (earth element), is the same level, the same reality of Shiva which is realized in Shiva tattva. Here, there is complete realization in every act of the world.
The Kula system was introduced in Kashmir in the beginning of the 5th century A.D. by Shri Macchandanatha. Later, in the 9th century, because its teachings had become distorted, it was reintroduced by Sumatinatha. In the line of masters that followed from Sumatinatha, Somanatha was his disciple. Shambhunatha was the disciple of Somanatha, and the great Abhinavagupta was the disciple of Shambhunatha.

Pasted from the website of Universal Shaiva Fellowship.

mandag 24. november 2008

Welcome

Adesh! Adesh!

Welcome to this blog.

The path of the nathas are an ancient one and there is really no simple answer to as how this tradition operates. The line of nathas started a long time ago with Shri Matsyendranath and Shri Gorakshanath, and has gone through many changes and directions through the centuries.

There are many sects, or panths, within the global nath community, and the Kaula Naths of AMOOKOS are just one of them.

Here, on this blog, I hope to make contact with sincere seekers after true peace, true freedom and true happiness, and exchange experiences and questions regarding the Kaula Nath Path.

Jai Kali Ma!

:nath (Visarganath)