So now the real interesting question, I think: Is there a spiritual development that tantra can be used for, which is neither traditional Hindu nor traditional Buddhist? Or Jain? I haven’t gone into Jain, but there it’s not very fully developed, as far as I know. And here I think we need to differentiate two possibilities. One would be a constructive use of these methods and the other would be a destructive use of these methods. In other words, if we have basic abilities, or basic tantra, and we are using these methods as a way to develop them, are we using it to develop in a beneficial way or in a harmful way – destructive way? Even if we aren’t aiming for the highest state in Hinduism or Buddhism; if we’re aiming just in terms of improving things in this lifetime. Well, if we use these tantra methods to just increase our disturbing emotions, that would be very destructive; that would not be spiritual development. That is, in a sense, using our abilities in a way which is not going to be of help to us and certainly not to be of help to anybody else.

So we have people who look at the tantra methods and they have very little understanding of them. And they see the sexual imagery and they think that tantra is a method for having exotic sex, and so they practice it in order to have exotic sexual experiences. Now that is certainly not beneficial for anybody; it just increases one’s attachment, desire, and naivety. Or if they use the tantra methods to gain control over their energies, and so on, to be able to have special powers in order to control others – exploit them, get them to do what they want for themselves, and so on – then this again is something destructive; it’s not beneficial. It’s a big ego trip. A power trip. And so that also is something that we would want to avoid. I mean, some people might think that this is spiritual development, but if we look at our discussion of what we have said is spiritual development – what it would mean – this would not be developing ourselves. This would be using various abilities for our own ego purposes, so that’s not really developing – it’s developing perhaps the self, but in a very destructive way. And if we don’t have a clear understanding of reality and we imagine ourselves in the form of these figures, we could really become very schizophrenic, completely out of touch with reality, and no different from somebody imagining that they are Napoleon or Cleopatra or Mickey Mouse. So this is misusing tantra, I would say, based on either no understanding or incorrect understanding.

When we say that this tantra practice is dangerous, as we say in Buddhism, it’s because if we’re not prepared and we misuse it, it could really cause damage internally. Especially working with the energy systems; you could really mess that up and get really sick, physically and mentally, from that. And also if we misuse these methods, we just increase our disturbing emotions. To work with the energy systems – whether we’re doing this in a Hindu system, a Buddhist system, or Chinese qigong system, or whatever – you absolutely have to have excellent concentration. Without that concentration: you start moving these energies around, you lose control; and it really can cause a lot of damage internally.

So, on the other hand, is there a constructive way that we can use these tantric methods for spiritual development, but within the context of this lifetime and not necessarily working for the ultimate Hindu or Buddhist goal? That’s the other question. And I think that there can to be, to a certain extent.

Now I think here we have to differentiate an actual meditation practice from doing a ritual, because tantra practice is often associated with doing various rituals: you chant something – what you’re chanting is usually descriptive of what you are visualizing, what you are imagining – and you ring bells and play drums, and stuff like that. So there’s a lot of ceremonial things that are involved with it. Now that’s not associated with all levels of the tantra practice, but certainly at the beginning levels of the practice, especially in the Buddhist practice. As I say, I’m not that familiar with Hindu, whether they have a similar type of thing; I would guess that they do, but I don’t really know. But, in any case, if we are doing this type of ritual practice with no understanding of what we are doing, just doing a ritual – either by ourselves or in a group – it could be just for a big ego trip of fantasy; playing. That would not be very beneficial. Thinking I’m such an advanced practitioner and what I’m doing is so extraordinary – but actually it’s just a trip into fantasy land, and we have no idea really of what we are doing; or even if we have some idea, it’s a very vague idea of what we are doing. We’re just playing. And it could easily go into the direction of following a cult. The teacher says recite this – and it could be absolute nonsense, what you’re reciting. You just blindly follow, like in a cult. So that’s a destructive way that it could go. But it doesn’t have to go in that destructive way.

On the other hand, there can be very constructive aspects of doing a ritual, even if we don’t have a very deep understanding of what we are doing. Although of course the more we understand what we are doing, the more beneficial it is. A ritual gives us structure to our practice – it gives us stability – so there is something that we can repeat each day, so our practice can go deeper and deeper. Doing these type of things in a group can give us a support group, so we don’t feel alone – that I’m doing this crazy thing by myself, and it’s completely insane. Although of course it could be that now there’s a group of us insane people doing it. But, if we look at a positive aspect of this, it can be supportive. But I think the main benefit is that it gives a certain stability, especially if we are doing it every day: that here is something that is stable in my life. Regardless of what I am doing in my ordinary life, this is a stable thing that I do each day. And even if we don’t have terribly much understanding of what it is that we are doing, still it gives us stability. So this is one aspect of spiritual development, I would say – to become more stable, become more peaceful – which is not necessarily going all the way in the direction of the ultimate Hindu or Buddhist goal.

And the same thing with reciting mantras. This is another thing that we have in common in both Hindu and Buddhist tantras: the recitation of mantras. Well, there the recitation of mantras, on the deeper level, is intended to help us to shape the breath, which shapes the energy and is a method to gain control of the energies, so that we can go deeper and deeper and get to more and more subtle levels of energy. But if we are just doing recitation of mantras on an ordinary level, not really having this more sophisticated understanding or aim, then mantras are a very good way of calming the mind, of getting rid of worry and all sorts of obsessive, disturbing thoughts, and so on. It can be very calming; very stabilizing. So it brings some level of spiritual development.

Now of course it becomes more beneficial if we use the mantra to help us to stay focused. For instance, in Buddhism, “Om mani padme hum,” to stay focused on compassion. So, even if we are not aiming for the compassion of a Buddha, if we are practicing with some level, some mental thing going on while we are doing the mantra – like trying to stay with thoughts of love and compassion – this certainly helps us with spiritual development. But if we look at mantras as the magic words that, if we say them, are going to give us powers or produce some sort of miracle change in us, then that’s not helpful at all. That’s going more on this destructive side. That’s not developing our good qualities.

And now in terms of working with these figures. The figure is, as I said… One term for these – I call them Buddha-figures, but that’s really within a Buddhist context – is these special deities, but another term for it is translated in Tibetan as “yidam.” And yidam has the connotation of something that we make a close bond or close association with for our mind. “Yi” is mind and “dam” is this close bond. So we want to make a close association with this – bond ourselves with this form, visualizing ourselves as this – as a transformation in order to develop all the good qualities that are represented by all the arms and legs and faces and so on.

So, even if we are not aiming for the ultimate Buddhist goal, still if we imagine ourselves in these forms as a way to try to be mindful of many things simultaneously, this can be helpful. And even if we are not doing this type of practice on the more complicated level – of trying to be mindful of all the things that are represented by the multi arms and so on – we could just be doing it in terms of a certain aspect that each of these figures is an embodiment of, like Avalokiteshvara is representing the compassion of the Buddhas; or Manjushri, the clarity of mind and understanding of the Buddhas. So we could imagine ourselves in these forms in order to gain a more positive self-image, in terms of being compassionate, being more understanding, and so on.

So in Buddhism we’re not doing this type of practice just in terms of what we would call in the West the “power of positive thinking.” Because we are making this transformation, in Buddhism, on the basis of understanding reality – how we exist, and so on. So I am not this truly existent deity walking around with all these arms and so on. We understand that we’re not there yet. We understand that this is like an illusion; it’s not something which is solid and real. And so on. That’s the Buddhist context of working with these deities.

So the power of positive thinking, in terms of a Western psychology, doesn’t necessarily have this understanding of reality – how we actually exist. But even without that understanding of how we exist, it can be beneficial to think in terms of: I have more compassion; I have more understanding; I have abilities – and so on, just in terms of gaining self-confidence. But one has to be very careful. The danger here is ego inflation and overconfidence.

In short, we have this tantra method. It can be used as a method for spiritual development, in the sense of developing the various positive qualities that we all have as a basis tantra. And it can be used for achieving a resultant tantra, a continuum of what would be considered the Buddhist goal or could be considered a Hindu goal. And if we’re not working for these type of goals which entail the intention to overcome uncontrollably recurring rebirth – all of that, and karma, etc. – we could also follow them, on a much less complete level, for some type of improvement, even within the context of this lifetime; but we have to be careful that it doesn’t go in a destructive way just to increase our disturbing emotions.