Tantra in Pynchon's Against the Day

[David Morris]

Daniel Odier is a renowned scholar of Kashmir Shaivism and Tantra:

http://www.danielodier.com/english/thePath.php

*The Tantric Shivaist Teachings from Kashmir according to the Kaula
tradition and the Spanda and Pratyabhijna schools*

*Tantra - the expansive way.*

The word "Tantra" comes from the root "tan" which means wide-ranging
whole.  It also evokes the weave of a fabric.  This mystical path has
deeply influenced Buddhism and Hinduism, whist retaining the
characteristics of Shaivism.

On Thu, May 4, 2017 at 3:07 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de
> wrote:

>
> Two informative books on Tantra in English:
>
> David Gordon White: Kiss of the Yogini. "Tantric Sex" in its South Asian
> Contexts [2003]
> http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/K/bo3617827.html
>
> Gavin Flood: The Tantric Body. The Secret Tradition Of Hindu Religion
> [2006]
> http://www.ibtauris.com/en/Books/Humanities/Religion%20%
> 20beliefs/Hinduism/The%20Tantric%20Body?menuitem=%
> 7B037F4C0C-953D-44F2-BE4E-A063CD784946%7D
>
> To those interested in a general (primarily ethnographic) introduction to
> Hinduism in English I recommend the book by --- Axel Michaels: Hinduism:
> Past and Present [2003], who also contrasts Hinduism with Western
> religions,  "where the self is preferred to the not-self, and where freedom
> in the world is more important than liberation from the world."
> http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7624.html
>
> Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha
>
>
>
> Am 04.05.2017 um 04:06 schrieb David Morris:
>
> P definitely fits with Tantra, the low road, inclusive of all experience
> and peoples.
> Tantra's details were historically kept secret, because it embraced sexual
> energy as a vehicle of transformation.  Tantra's prime goddess is
> Kundalini, aka Kali, a very fierce female. She is a kick ass V.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 4:58 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Informative, very, and somehow P's low but inclusive road is " right"
>> within his vision, IMHO.
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On May 2, 2017, at 10:08 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Tantra is the low road to Zen's high road.  Both reach the goal, but by
>> very different means. Tantra is inclusive of all experience as vehicles of
>> real value . Zen is exclusive of all experience's real value, all being
>> illusion and distraction. Tantra is "wet."  Zen is "dry."  Tantra is body.
>> Zen is mind.  Historically, Zen was exclusively for men and upper castes.
>> Tantra was open to all, including women and lower castes. Both are valid
>> ways to awakening.
>>
>> My path is Tantra,
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Tue, May 2, 2017 at 8:39 PM Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
>> lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> "The noted Quaternionist Dr. V. Ganesh Rao of Calcutta University was
>>> seeking a gateway to the Ulterior, as he liked to phrase it, having come to
>>> recognize the wisdom of simply finding silence and allowing Mathematics and
>>> History to proceed as they would." (p. 130)
>>>
>>> https://oak.ucc.nau.edu/jgr6/pynchon_against.htm
>>>
>>> John Rothfork: Tantra in Pynchon's *Against the Day*
>>>
>>> > ... What Pynchon calls grace seems to be related to what Hindus call
>>> *rasa* that invites us to *taste* or savor experience rather than
>>> substituting talk, ideas, and explanations for the experience. (...) The
>>> answer to the complexities offered by the novel, if we can call it an
>>> answer, seems to be *rasa,* beauty, or grace ... <
>>>
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasa_(aesthetics)
>>>
>>>
>
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