Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

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obnoxion
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Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

Post by obnoxion »

It is said that there are five kinds of vamacara (left hand parh) - Sabara-, Siddantha-, Kaulika-, Vama- and Cinacara.

Cinacara or "The Chinese Way" (also known as "Kali Practice") forms, according N. N. Bhattacharyya's "Tantrabhidhana - A Tantric Lexicon": "...the substratum of Tantric vamacara... The Taoist rituals which came into fold of the Tara cult in China as well as Yinism or Exaltation of the Female Principle in Taoism, which developed in that system in corollary of the Chinese Buddhist cult of Female Principle, were also able counter
-influence the development of the Indian vamacara rites of both the Buddhist and non-Buddhist Tantras."


It is told that the eminen sage, a paragon of Brahmin ascetic, Vasistha, worshipped the goddess Tara for a thousand years, but the goddess ignored him. When Vasistha was so dissapointed that he was ready to curse the gods, he received a message to travel to China/Tibet to learn the proper way to worship. And this is where the name of Cinacara gets its name.

In Cinacara, women in general are revered to the status of the Brahmin caste, but otherwise the castle system is discarded. All form of ritual purity are disrecarded. All women, even wicked women, are meditated as goddesed, and women are never to be lied to or violated, no matter what. One's own wife is preferred as the tantric consort. There is also a practice of The worship of trees - "The clan-trees".

This practice is most quintessentially how I understand the LHP. It is my substratum of the left hand path. It is prominent on later tantras, but I consider it as the logial conclusion of the older kaula schools. Absolutely the best book on Cinacara is Loriliai Biernacki's "Renowned Goddess of Desire - Women, Sex and Speech in Tantra" (Oxford University Press, 2007).

How does this idea of Cinacara resonate with your idea of the LHP?
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Smaragd
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Re: Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

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I will use footnotes because had some running thoughts that felt important, yet were too disruptive to be left inside the paragraphs and brackets.

Cinacara as you explained it seems to resonate well with my idea of the LHP. If I first observe this from metaphysical perspective, I see the feminine principle to be in the chaos and darkness of the downward triangle. Bloodthirsty Kali represents it well. These lower principles, say for example kama manas left on its own, truly is invincible in her blind thirst for blood – the blindness is the chaos. But in this chaos, especially if we come back to the whole lower triad as a mirror image of the higher, is all the actuality – should I say, shakti – of the potential of life. Her scimitar releases the blood stuck inside demonic loops, or mere potential.* In such worldly ”actuality” I see the goddess. United with the masculine principle,** the metal of her blade smells like fresh air and truth, so does the iron in the blood. Shakti has etymological root in ’śak’ which translates to “able”. While the god is potential, the goddess is actual. Reminds me of the Death in June song with the line repeated ”don’t you know God is disabled...”. My Protestant roots in ”körttiläisyys”, has intersting position in all this. A sort of disabled, tied hands philosophy was held important as it was thought god can not be approached and one should just focus on the earthly work. Isn’t this actually an LHP approach as it focuses on the goddess as it focuses on the wordly? If my memory serves me right there was an idea that god comes to you in the world if (s)he wills. In tantrism, I’ve understood theres a similar idea that the goddess appears if she wills and does this only once in a life time (with some exceptions existing).

Now looking in to the perpetual world where these principles are actualized all the time and sort of immanent following of the god is possible, that is the worship of the goddess, I can see reverence towards women, even the wicked, to be clear form of LHP devotion. It is devotion towards the coitus where the god is intricately ”folded” on the goddess – the principles have their symbolical images in the manifoldness of the manifestation. For me women as symbolical carriers of the divine feminine principle seems to appear so unforced especially in close relationships. The women who I now meditate as goddesses start to act as the otherness which I am left to be destroyed by if my devotion is imperfect. I guess there are no more challenging way to face the otherness than through a loved one. And I mean challenging in a way that in such relationship there lies possibly the largest scope of actualized potential: Love dressed in the gown of romantic love and all the negative – the darkness ie. otherness that the world asks you to face in your partner.

I have to say I’d be a bit more baffled with these symbols if I’d be a woman because the darkness of the feminine principle describes so well the otherness, and thus in a heterosexual relationship the otherness is seen in a man.


* Intersting side note: in such a position god seems like very closely related to dreams, although dreams are often thought clearly a domain of the goddess, which is understandable. These are part of the folding of the sexes towards each others.

** Through her mirroring of him or perhaps more straight forward union, if such is even possible? This is actually quite major question for me.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
obnoxion
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Re: Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

Post by obnoxion »

There is so much good in you message, but I don't think I am able to address it all.

When it comes to the first impressions of teachings like the yogini-kaula, or later the cincara (which are separate, yet closely linked traditionas - very closely, in my view), I feel great joy and my hair stand on end. And these are classical signs of coming across a teaching that one would do well to pursue. A somewhat similar thing happened when I first found the teachings of The Star of Azazel. It felt like I found a lush oasis in a vast desert. And at the same time I realized how severe my thirst was, I realized I had found a fresh water source. I think this is a way to respond to the esoteric side of the LHP, the wordless and invisible vastness of it.
Smaragd wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 11:49 pm Isn’t this actually an LHP approach as it focuses on the goddess as it focuses on the wordly? If my memory serves me right there was an idea that god comes to you in the world if (s)he wills. In tantrism, I’ve understood theres a similar idea that the goddess appears if she wills and does this only once in a life time (with some exceptions existing).
I think the mentality of cinacara brings the values and orientations of the essential vamacara ritual as the constant factor of everyday life. And though I think the tradition is that goddess can appear up to three times (like Sofia did to Solovyev), if one succeeds in one's cinacara practice, the recognizion is guaranteed. And The recognizion is, as you said, made in the seemingly mundane sphere, without psychological haste. And this is more true, I believe, the further left our most Inner inspirations reside.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Re: Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

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obnoxion wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 3:49 pmHow does this idea of Cinacara resonate with your idea of the LHP?

I have many different LHP ideas. They include at least the following axes:

My personal --- Common
Oriental --- Occidental
Ideal --- Pragmatic (i.e. what is the best emphasis for the present system)

– Personally, I have quite the same preferences.
– I consider those things more Oriental than Occidental (sadly: I think that our Western culture is in almost desprate need of much more feminine & even matriarchal emphasis in many if not all things).
– The last one of my list is the trickiest, but I'd say that the Cinacara you described would fall more to the "ideal" than "pragmatic" at the present point of possibilities for esoteric teaching.

I'll take a bit closer look to the things you listed:
obnoxion wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 3:49 pmwomen in general are revered to the status of the Brahmin caste,

I believe in equality of the sexes, so this is a bit problematic. Even though I find women easier to revere than men, that is partly personal (partly it is also because of the things I just mentioned: feminine emphasis is lacking in the present culture, so it should be rekindled by putting more emphasis to it), so I feel that I must transcend such personal preferences, just like I wish that people who feel the male gender more approachable should be able to similarly let go of this preference.

but otherwise the castle system is discarded.

Sounds very good, since we know what terrible problems this system has brought. Should we live, in some distant millennium, in a world that would be brighter spiritually, I would once again install a system of castes (archetypal professions or temperaments), but not in our present heartless condition.

All form of ritual purity are disrecarded.

This also sounds good. Even though there are beneficent things in ritual purities, we should not start with these things, but they should be exceptions instead of pressed demands.

All women, even wicked women, are meditated as goddesed,

This depends on what "meditated" means. If it means "considered", then I disagree. Even though every thing can, and in a way, should be meditated as divine beings, from toads to stars, I have wrestled so hard with the this kind of teachings that I am nowadays pretty sure that adoring or being obedient to a wicked person does very bad things to everyone.

But if this literally means that women are in meditation practices thought as goddesses, then the practice becomes much more interesting, and potentially extremely helpful for certain types or certain times. For some others, it can lead to serious loss of balance; like the spiritual practices usually function – there is only one panacea, buddhi itself, and every other practice is remedy or poison depending on situation.

and women are never to be lied to or violated, no matter what.

This should not be a matter of sex. Of course, since a female body is often less bulky than man's, a male person should be especially careful in not in any way hurting or threatening a woman. But thinking that one should never lie to a woman is another way of saying that one would be allowed to lie to men.

One's own wife is preferred as the tantric consort.

I agree.

There is also a practice of The worship of trees - "The clan-trees".

I sympathize. I personally consider most deciduous trees as living images of the divine, they are like God(dess)'s living sculptures of vital presence.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Re: Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

Post by Angolmois »

Nefastos wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:51 am ...I think that our Western culture is in almost desperate need of much more feminine & even matriarchal emphasis in many if not all things).
I think that the western world is quite well heading towards that direction. The middle east and the arabic world are in my opinion in a very serious need for a feminine revolution. I guess the strict patriarchal system is in its death throes and it will cause - and causes already - very much evil if something doesn't happen very quickly.
Nefastos wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:51 am Should we live, in some distant millennium, in a world that would be brighter spiritually, I would once again install a system of castes (archetypal professions or temperaments), but not in our present heartless condition.
I would very much like to hear more about this idea, since I have pondered much how the present lack of orientation in many fields of life (a-dharma, people not knowing who they are) and the traditionalist idea of a caste system could be combined in a fruitful manner in the future.
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Re: Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

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I abhore the thought that this practice should be connected to social issues. This is an Inner practice. In the above mentioned book, Biernacki has presented five key points of this practice, which I have slightly paraphrased:

1. The practice centers on women: seeking out women and treating them with respect.

2. The practice is especially a mental practice; therefore , none of the ordinary rules of time, place, or purity apply.

3. A rite that involves the worship of women , frequently incorporating the rite of sexual union, but at times simply limited to the worship of living women without including the rite of sexual union.

4. The praxis involved in the "Kali Practice" explicitly goes beyond thee limited time and place of the rite. The attitude of reverence and respect toward women should be maintained constantly, twenty-four hours a day. (So not as in older tantras, where normative hierarchies are often resumed after the ritual, and all women return to the status of sudra-caste. Instead in cinacara they are all constantly equal to brahmins).

5. The Goddess is embodied in all living women, and women as a category are revered, whether worshipped or not. This category is assimilated to Brahmins.

The mentality of this practice is like this: during the morning walk one should bow dow (I assume this is a mental practice) to a little girl, to an intoxicated woman, to an old woman, to a beautiful clan-woman, to a contemptible woman, vile woman or a greatly wicked woman. And one should contemplate on the fact that none of these women appreciate being lied to or violated

I understand how this practice could be seen as a licence to abuse men. But this is why this is an Inner practice for the few. I don't think it was supposed to be discussed in a company where such interpretations would be entertained. And I hope that this our little forum would be as close to such company as we can get. Becausr I don't mean that all who read this will never lie or even strike anyone. I mean that none here would likely wish to lie to anyone or hit anyone. As Shiva says to Parvati, worried that some human or nonhuman might overhear this teaching:

"You are the true self, O Goddess. There is nothing that cannot be told to you. However, these others, some Gods and humans, some demons, tree spirits, and malevolent spirits, those dwelling in the nether world of snakes, and horse-men, and the host of celestial musicians and river-nymphs, wheter domestic beasts or wild beasts, birds, these which move on earth - these are all very stupid. The nature of all these is such that all are mutualy fighting in battle. All are constantly doing bad deeds, eagerly subscribing to the views of bad paths. None of these know the bliss of the Wisdom of the absolute, or the happiness of the absolute. O Goddess, how can I tell you that secret rite?"
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Re: Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

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Rúnatýr wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:14 amI think that the western world is quite well heading towards that direction. The middle east and the arabic world are in my opinion in a very serious need for a feminine revolution.

I didn't mean to exclude any contemporary countries, for I think that our present time civilization as a whole is focused on Western mindset. Even the Near-East, Middle-East and Far-East countries are living according to the Western mindset of masculine power gaming.

Rúnatýr wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:14 am
Nefastos wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2020 7:51 amShould we live, in some distant millennium, in a world that would be brighter spiritually, I would once again install a system of castes (archetypal professions or temperaments), but not in our present heartless condition.

I would very much like to hear more about this idea, since I have pondered much how the present lack of orientation in many fields of life (a-dharma, people not knowing who they are) and the traditionalist idea of a caste system could be combined in a fruitful manner in the future.

I think that even though ultimately all people are similar, on the middle levels of the psyche we are also pretty different. Temperaments, for example, usually take longer than one life time to change; and aspectual emphases take years or decades to change. This would be good to take into consideration without putting these temperaments/aspects/castes into any but heuristic order. (Sometimes White is better than Black, because of situation; at some other point, vice versa.) Right now our whole humankind is so soaked in the spirit of competition, that this cannot work. But later, when this inflated balloon of the Western (pseudo-)ego has burst, we can build a society where different people can enjoy their differences without thinking that their own class, tribe, family or temperament would be better than any other. In that society, there will be people who would want to clean toilets, but they are asked to make laws & lead people instead, and people who are taken from their present caste where they excel to work in another, to build a compherensive psyche that lacks the dangerously sharp edges.

obnoxion wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2020 4:11 pmI abhore the thought that this practice should be connected to social issues. This is an Inner practice.

I am a bit confused how one's inner practices that include special attitudes toward different genders would not in any way affect one's other psychological & social attitudes. When you have time, could you elaborate the mindset, the precise difference between these two (inner & outer practices)?
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Re: Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

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Nefastos wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:17 pm obnoxion kirjoitti: ↑I abhore the thought that this practice should be connected to social issues. This is an Inner practice.

I am a bit confused how one's inner practices that include special attitudes toward different genders would not in any way affect one's other psychological & social attitudes. When you have time, could you elaborate the mindset, the precise difference between these two (inner & outer practices)?
I think that such practice becomes diluted when it is turned into a source material for a social reformism. Soon it will be emptied out into the vast pool of social concerns, and it needs to be pacified with ever-changing current concensus.

As is often stated in the tantras, a practice gains power from secrecy, from intimacy. It is Inner in the sense that the attitudes behind the (often mental) actions - actions, that when outer, could be seen simply as common curtecy and good manners - are magico-religious; Inner, because it is mental practice; Inner, because it is a secret and intimate practice. Inner, because it is about one's relationship with one's goddess, and not some public fight.

Then all the subtlety, the intimacy and the strength of it could be lost, and it would become just another political demonstration. i would hate to see that happen, I truly would, even If it was for a cause I heartily promote.
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Re: Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

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obnoxion wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:52 pmI think that such practice becomes diluted when it is turned into a source material for a social reformism.

I thought you might mean this. I heartily agree, even though I also consider the cultural secondary effects I think that published esoteric (which means exoteric!) practices can lead to.

obnoxion wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:52 pmAs is often stated in the tantras, a practice gains power from secrecy, from intimacy. It is Inner in the sense that the attitudes behind the (often mental) actions - actions, that when outer, could be seen simply as common curtecy and good manners - are magico-religious; Inner, because it is mental practice; Inner, because it is a secret and intimate practice.

I'm afraid people often misunderstand the "intimacy" of the truly esoteric practices (i.e. tantras). We tend to confuse the "intimate" with "selfish", something taken to the small circle practice so that "the others" – in a pejorative sense – would be barred out. Academic study about what the word esoteric actually means gives a good idea of this confusion.

obnoxion wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:52 pmThen all the subtlety, the intimacy and the strength of it could be lost, and it would become just another political demonstration, I would hate to see that happen, I truly would, even If it was for a cause I would promote.

Amen. During the time (since 1999) I have written about this great need of true female emphasis I have already seen how the apparent female emphasis has been taken as a hobbyhorse for something completely different, and because of that manhandling of the idea itself, the previous mad machismo has got even more water into its mill of oppression. The political, or even the cultural per se, is not the field of the occult, even though these will overlap whatever we do.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Re: Cinacara - the substratum of LHP

Post by Smaragd »

obnoxion wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:52 pm
Nefastos wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:17 pm obnoxion kirjoitti: ↑I abhore the thought that this practice should be connected to social issues. This is an Inner practice.

I am a bit confused how one's inner practices that include special attitudes toward different genders would not in any way affect one's other psychological & social attitudes. When you have time, could you elaborate the mindset, the precise difference between these two (inner & outer practices)?
I think that such practice becomes diluted when it is turned into a source material for a social reformism. Soon it will be emptied out into the vast pool of social concerns, and it needs to be pacified with ever-changing current concensus.

As is often stated in the tantras, a practice gains power from secrecy, from intimacy. It is Inner in the sense that the attitudes behind the (often mental) actions - actions, that when outer, could be seen simply as common curtecy and good manners - are magico-religious; Inner, because it is mental practice; Inner, because it is a secret and intimate practice. Inner, because it is about one's relationship with one's goddess, and not some public fight.

Then all the subtlety, the intimacy and the strength of it could be lost, and it would become just another political demonstration. i would hate to see that happen, I truly would, even If it was for a cause I heartily promote.
I agree, although I have observed the inner emphasis of these kinds can easily leak in to the outer in unwanted ways, diluting the inner meaning of the devotion and respect for the femininen principle. This could be seen for example in some kind of preference to deal with women instead of giving inner chances of the feminine to be present everywhere. The meaning of the feminine divinity thus dilutes, but this again points the necessity of kaula – to have the intimate circle where such immense integrity of meaning would be possible to exist between the practitioners and their pools of feminine and masculine sides in some more specific relation to each other, without dilution of the inner by the outer. I mean specific in a similar way as there is specific aspects in our working, we individually emphasize and work with each other with these pools.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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