Gaia Awakening: Invitation to Planetary Tantra
Research and References Glossary
Metahistory.org goes Tantric, donning a new look and new language, but its primary goal is unchanged: to invite a future myth. This conversion of the site signals a passage from invitation to invocation, the sacred calling to make love interactive with the supernatural magic of the living earth, Gaia. |
Orientation: A Transpersonal Message
The page you are viewing is the portal to an entirely new dimension of this site. It links to three folders of writings and audio files: Base, Path, and Goal. I draw this trinity from Dzogchen (zhi - lam - drebu), and I convert numerous features of that Tibetan system into Planetary Tantra, but I am not teaching Dzogchen, which I have not practiced. Except for three one-off encounters, I have not met any recognized master, Tibetan or otherwise, in my entire life; and I have never trained under one. Truth be told, I've spent a good deal of time avoiding such people!
Like Dzogchen, Planetary Tantra is not a gradualist path, but a radical approach to sudden illumination. (In this respect, it compares also to Ch'an and Zen Buddhism, which I have practiced, free-lance.) I call this approach Kala Tantra. Kala means "instant," and Kali is the primary supernatural agency to be recognized on this path of fast-track liberation. The Hindu goddess Kali is said to oversee the current age, Kali Yuga, and she emerges as the dominant presence in the human psyche as the age draws to a close.
Kali is an aspect of Gaia just now coming into view. She is not the wrath of Gaia, but the repository and reflex of the wrath of everyone who is enraged at the sickness of society and the exploitation and desecration of the earth. Due to human weakeness. cowardice, and moral reservations (so-called), most human wrath cannot be enacted or expressed in an effectual way, so that it would make a difference in the world. Kali receives our unexpelled wrath so that she can turn it around and direct it back to humanity in ways that no individual can do.
Kala Tantra is a gathering of those who "worship" Kali, but what manner of worship is this, really? Certainly not the superstitious, obsequious way she is worshipped by masses in India today. I will venture to say that metahistory.org will be a recruitment site for Kali-worshippers, but allow me a little time to disclose what such an outrageous claim entails. Planetary Tantra from A to Z is, if I may resort to some crude street slang, "pretty fuckin' outrageous." I do say so myself, not by reference to my personal self but to what comes through, transpersonally. It will be the same for everyone who boards this sublime adventure.
The unity of love and the supernatural generates power of unimaginable intensity and scope: power to play, not control, to dissolve, not dominate, to enhance and enchant, not seduce, to teach and inspire, not deceive, to direct, not manipulate. This power becomes available only to those who no longer care about having it, and who, precisely by such detachment, are perfectly set up for a big surprise: the power required to liberate all sentient beings comes with the freedom to use it any way you like. Any way. How the ultimate freedom aligns to magic is an open secret of Kala Tantra.
Planetary Tantra has some precedents regarding spiritual orientation and technique, but it is without precedent in actual practice. I will use various parallels with Indian and Tibetan Buddhism to highlight the unique nature of this path and demonstrate how it is custom-made for this moment in historical time, right now. It is not a timeless method, but a tactic for near instanteous change. The point of departure from Buddhism into Kala Tantra is the revision of the Bodhisattva Vow, usually stated: I forgo my own ultimate liberation in order to strive for the liberation of all sentient beings. I will explain how this vow originated and why it poses a fraudulent goal—didn't I warn about outrageous claims? Okay, while I'm at it, consider this:
Kala Tantra is collaboration with the Divine Feminine in the supreme manifestation of its blissful wisdom display, the Shakti Cluster. The power required to liberate all sentient beings is beyond human holding capacity, and so to avow such an aim is futile and misleading. The power for liberation on that scale streams from the realm of Wisdom Dakinis, modalities of the Divine Feminine, who align with human individuals in a different vow, for a different intent: to make love interactive with the supernatural dimension wherefrom those Dakinis emanate.
So what is the "Shakti Cluster"? Believe it or not, it is not a Lashian invention but a scholarly term for Lash to explain—and to extrapolate, literally, into the atmosphere. Who are the "Mahavidyas" described by scholars as the ten magic-granting deities of the Cluster? What are Wisdom Dakinis? Are they Female Buddhas like the benevolent Tara? Are they Dangerous Guardians like Durtro Lhamo, the protector of tertons (treasure-finders) in Nyingma tradition? Are they comparable to angels or archangels in Christian lore? Or are they Asian versions of supernatural witches such as Hecate and Circe? Future writings on this site will answer these questions at length, but for the short answer, try this: Wisdom Dakinis are the luminous company of the "Demonic Divine," coming soon to an apparitional theatre near you.
One aim of the Tantric conversion of metahistory.org is to announce the Dakinis of the Gaian Shakti Cluster to the world at large. Another aim is to convey their teachings, the theory and practice of Planetary Tantra. Much of the future material on this site will be about these Dakinis, including their names and games and styles, the powers they offer and the rhythm of their transmissions, as well as my transcription of direct instruction from them. There, how transparent is that.
"The dakini is the memory of the body." Hevajra Tantra
In closing, let me address the concern that John Lash has finally gone off his rocker and turned into a religious fanatic, the center of his own cult of "dakini magic"; that he's recklessly pirating sacred Buddhist teachings for a sex-crazed power-trip, proposing weird games fed by his occult fantasies, passing off his channeled material on the site, and perhaps worse. These concerns are predictable and may well be heightened by the tone and content of what's to come... I don't ask anyone to trust me, but, if you care to, just consider in a sober, open-minded way what I present in the coming months. And if you dare to, go where it takes you. Go rapturously where wisdom displays the magical powers of your non-originated mind. Let love merge you surely and sweetly into the matrix of the Supernatural.
The Great Dare is on.
jll: Through Kamala 22 November 2008 Andalucia
