13 Facts About Tantric Yoga

Tantric Yoga traditions have been studied mostly from textual and historical perspectives.

Anthropological work on living Tantric Yoga tradition is scarce, and ethnography has rarely engaged with the study of Tantra.

Some scholars have tried to demystify the myth of secrecy in contemporary Tantric Yoga traditions, suggesting new methodological avenues to overcome the ethical and epistemological problems in the study of living Tantric Yoga traditions.

Tantric Yoga defines Tantrism as an apologetic label of Westerners for a system that they little understand that is "not coherent" and which is "an accumulated set of practices and ideas from various sources, that has varied between its practitioners within a group, varied across groups, across geography and over its history".

Key element of Buddhist Tantric Yoga practice is the visualization of deities in meditation.

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Early Tantric Yoga practices are sometimes attributed to Shaiva ascetics associated with Bhairava, the Kapalikas .

Literary evidence suggests Tantric Yoga Buddhism was probably flourishing by the 7th century.

Tantric Yoga cites numerous elements that are found in the Saiva Vidyapitha literature, including whole passages and lists of pithas, that seem to have been directly borrowed by Vajrayana texts.

Tantric Yoga practices included secret initiation ceremonies in which individuals would enter the tantric family and receive the secret mantras of the tantric deities.

Tantric Yoga Shaivism was adopted by the kings of Kashmir, as well as by the Somavamshis of Odisha, the Kalachuris, and the Chandelas of Jejakabhukti .

Tantric Yoga traditions survived in certain regions, such as among the Naths of Rajasthan, in the Sri Vidya tradition of South India and in the Bengali Bauls.

Tantric Yoga materials involving the use of mantras and dharanis began to appear in China during the fifth century period, and Buddhist masters such as Zhiyi developed proto-tantric rituals based on esoteric texts.

One of the main elements of the Tantric Yoga literature is ritual Rather than one coherent system, Tantra is an accumulation of practices and ideas from different sources.