Tantric Yoga Techniques

YOGA TANTRA: Paths to Magical Feats

by H.H. the Dalai Lama, Dzongkaba, and Jeffrey Hopkins (and ed.)

The Dalai Lama opens the door to the topic of Yoga Tantra with an extraordinarily detailed teaching on a classic text. Rarely in the Dalai Lama’s lifetime has he given teachings of such a nature on this topic. There follows a translation of the Yoga Tantra section of Dzong-ka-ba’s The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra, one of his most important works and a monument of Tibetan Buddhist literature. Jeffrey Hopkins concludes this book with an outline of the steps of Yoga Tantra practice. This is an invaluable book for anyone who is practicing or interested in Buddhist tantra in general.

This is the third book in a series presenting The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra. The first two books were Tantra in Tibet and Deity Yoga. Tantra in Tibet, part one of The Great Exposition, describes the differences between the Lesser and Great Vehicles and between the Sutra and Mantra Great Vehicles. Deity Yoga, parts two and three of The Great Exposition, presents Action Tantra and Performance Tantra.

“In this extraordinary book, the Dalai Lama opens the door to the topic of Yoga Tantra with a detailed teaching on a classic text. In a Snow Lion newsletter last year, translator Jeffrey Hopkins explained that ‘magical feats’ are not just walking on water or finding treasures–rather, knowing all treatises is a magical feat in itself. And in the same way, accumulating merit in order to benefit all sentient beings is an important accomplishment on the path to enlightenment. This invaluable book includes a translation of the Yoga Tantra section of Dzong-ka-ba’s (Je Tsongkhapa’s) The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra, which is a monument of Tibetan Buddhist literature. In this section, the focus is on the development of calm abiding and special insight, and the book concludes with an outline of the steps of Yoga Tantra practice.”–Mandala Magazine

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, leader of the Tibetan people and Nobel Peace Laureate, is a remarkable Buddhist teacher and scholar, versed in the teachings of all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Dzong-ka-ba (1357-1419), founder of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism and of Ganden Monastery, was a prolific writer and one of Tibet’s greatest philosophers.

Jeffrey Hopkins is a seminal and influential scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. Professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, he is the author and translator of numerous books on Tibetan Buddhism.

Introduction Into Tantra

From the beginning of time there have been those rare women and men who, following their hearts great yearning, have answered the existential question of birth and death with realization of who they truly are - who we all are. Pranama is such a one. He invites, cajoles, dares us to join the dance. Read his words, let them enter your heart and smash the taboo against unreasonable happiness. The flame of being is passed from master to disciple in the great silence of the heart - these words are an engraved invitation.

R. F.

“What is Tantra?”
an interview with Tantric Master Prem Pranama

This interview occurred in the summer of 1994. The interviewer, Ralph Abrams, has been a spiritual seeker for the last 25 years. He has worked with Swami Muktananda, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Chagdud Tulku, Nagkpa Chogyum, Native American teachers and currently lives in the Crazy Cloud Hermitage where he studies the Tantric path with Pranama.

R: The word Tantra is thrown around quite a bit in spiritual circles these days, and it often means very different things. I’d like to start off with the simple question: What is Tantra?

P: Tantra is the hot blood of spiritual practice. It smashes the taboo against unreasonable happiness; a thunderbolt path, swift, joyful, and fierce. There are many different types of paths. Some touch you like a gentle spring rain, but Tantra is the wild summer thunder storm churning with creation, destruction, bliss and emptiness. Tantra is a wild mother tiger - if you approach her with right motivation, right intention, and integrity, she’ll suckle you at her breast; but if you come to her in a sloppy way, she’ll rip apart your body-mind, eat you for dinner, and shit out what’s left.

R: Wow! I think that this sense of joyful abandon and the force and bliss you’ve described would make the Tantric path attractive to many people. Plus the fact that it is known to be a very swift path to enlightenment.

P. Swift, yes. But the Tantric Vajrayana path is complex and can be dangerous. It requires a strong, well integrated sense of self prepared through careful preliminary practice. Otherwise it is possible for the practitioner to make gross errors in judgment. On the Tantric path, it is perhaps easier to become the ultimate form of egohood and delusion than it is to become free. You can start off intending to liberate the tyranny of ordinary appearance into primordial awareness and end up crystallizing the ego into diamond-hard delusion. There is no authentic Tantra without profound commitment, discipline, intelligence, courage, and a sense of wild, foolhardy, fearless abandon.
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