"The dakinis are the most important element of the enlightened feminine in Tibetan Buddhism.. They are the luminous, subtle, spiritual energy, the key, the gatekeeper, the guardian of the unconditioned state. If we are not willing to invite the dakini into our life then we cannot enter into the subtle states of mind. Sometimes the dakinis appear as messengers, sometimes as guides and sometimes as protectors.. Dakinis have a quality of playfulness, expressing emptiness and pulling the rug out from under you."

- Lama Tsultrim Allione

Here's an excerpt from an article by Sthaneshwar-ji at Sutra Journal,
" Tantra in the Western imagination stands for exotic and orgasmic rituals coming from India and Tibet that blend sex and meditation. Tantric practice is often compared with pagan animistic rituals that include blood and sex, and the supernatural powers described in Tantric texts are often compared with magic. This does not mean that Tantra has always been painted positively in its homeland. For most native Indians, Tantra stands for scary witchcraft and ghoulish Aghoris that capture the imagination when one thinks of a ‘Tantrik’. With the 20th century guru movements and the vacuum resulting from a lack of traditional awareness, the ‘exotic’ side of Tantra appears to be in transit, doubling back to India in changed form.

"Historically, Tantra has remained elastic in adopting practices that cannot be blended together to make one single practice or belief. The contemporary categorization of Tantra subsumes this intrinsic diversity, with its practices contradictory to each other, and philosophies supporting different goals. As Tantra becomes grossly simplified, the market that consumes Tantra is little concerned with the problems inherent to blending Hindu and Buddhist Tantras, left-hand and right-hand Tantras, and various disciplines (Acharas). Once again, this homogenization is doubling back ..."
http://www.sutrajournal.com/tantra-and-the-west-sthaneshwar-timalsina

And another ...
http://www.sutrajournal.com/mantra-by-sthaneshwar-timalsina

Regarding the practice of Mantra & Tantra without the guidance of a Guru:

"Pustake likhitā vidyā yena sundari yapyate
Sidhir na jāyate tasya kalpakoti-ṣaṭair api.

O Beauteous one! He who does Japa of a Vidyā [Mantra] learnt from a book can never attain Siddhi even if he persists for countless millions of years."

Ṣaṭkarmadīpikā

"O Kuleśvari!
For a Kaulika non-drink is a drink, not to be eaten is worth eating, and that which should not be resorted to is worth resorting.

O Kuleśvari!
For a Kaulika there is neither injunction nor rejection, neither merit or demerit, neither heaven nor hell.

Such a Yogī lives in a way that the men of the world may laugh, feel disgust, revile and seeing bypass him from a distance leaving him alone. He would go about in different guises, at times like one worthy, at time like one fallen, and at times like a ghost or a demon."

Kulārṇava Tantra

"Faith is the foremost vehicle,
leading to definite release.
For that reason the intelligent
rely on the pursuit of faith.

In those lacking faith,
virtuous phenomena do not arise,
just as in seeds burnt by fire,
no green sprout can germinate."

Daśadharmakasūtra

"What need is there for many words here?
Do everything to make your guru happy;
abandon everything he is displeased with;
apply yourself to that, examine that!

This was said by Vajradhara himself:

“Spiritual attainments follow the guru.”

Aware of this, use everything there is,
and make your guru absolutely happy."

Gurupañcāśikā

"If you take someone as your spiritual teacher and then relinquish your reliance on him, you will be harmed by illnesses and evil spirits in this life, and in future lives you will have to experience the immeasurable sufferings of the lower rebirths.

If you rely on nonvirtuous friends and bad companions, your excellent qualities will also diminish, your faults will increase, and misfortune will befall you. Therefore it was taught that this should be avoided in every way."

Je Tsongkhapa

"nāgēndrahārāya trilōcanāya
bhasmāṅgarāgāya
mahēśvarāya
nityāya śuddhāya digambarāya
tasmai nakārāya namaḥ śivāya"

"To the one wearing a garland of the chief of serpents, to the three-eyed one
To the one with the beauty of ashes on his body, to the great lord
To the eternal, to the immaculate, to the one clothed in space
To him, to the one with the letter "na", to Shiva, salutations!"

Śiva-pañcākṣara-stotra

Nepalese woman making offerings to the spirits that inhabited a recently felled tree.

The Five Goddesses or Pancha Yogini of Vajrayana - Vajrayogini, Ugratara Vajrayogini/Khadgayogini, Vajravarahi, Akashayogini, Nairatma/Nilyogini .

Courtesy : Rabindra Munankarmi

DakShinamoorthy Stótram by adi shankaracharya a laudatory hymn for this form of Siva.
ॐ मौनव्याख्या प्रकटितपरब्रह्मतत्वंयुवानं वर्शिष्ठान्तेवसदृषिगणैरावृतं ब्रह्मनिष्ठैः | आचार्येन्द्रं करकलित चिन्मुद्रमानन्दमूर्तिं स्वात्मरामं मुदितवदनं दक्षिणामूर्तिमीडे ‖
oṃ maunavyākhyā prakaṭita parabrahmatatvaṃ yuvānaṃ varśiṣṭhānte vasad ṛṣigaṇair āvṛtaṃ brahmaniṣṭhaiḥ | ācāryendraṃ karakalita cinmudram ānandamūrtiṃ svātmarāmaṃ muditavadanaṃ dakṣiṇāmūrtimīḍe ‖
I salute Śrī Dakṣiṇāmūrti, the Young Guru, who teaches the knowledge of Brahman through silence, who is surrounded by disciples, who are themselves ṛṣis and scholars in the Vedas. (I worship Śrī Dakṣiṇāmūrti), who is the teacher of teachers, whose hand is held in the sign of knowledge (cin-mudrā), whose nature is fullness, who reveals in himself, and who is ever silent.

Pure consciousness has no physical or visible body. Tripura is identical to pure consciousness. Infinite power is Her essential nature. She is perfect and without limitation and witnesses the whole universe.

~ Tripura Rahasya

chomdendé dezhin shekpa drachompa yangdakpar dzokpé sangye gönpo öpaktumepa la chaktsal lo

Bhagavān, tathāgata, arhat, complete and perfect buddha, protector Amitābha, to you I pay homage!

chö do kyab su chi o

To you I make offerings! In you I take refuge!

"Everything in the world works with mathematical precision. The law of causation functions meticulously. Every cause has an effect and an effect, a cause. You sow the seed and reap the harvest. Just strive in the right direction. The reward is inherent in the action."

A. Parthasarathy

"The wise one realises the ephemeral nature of this phenomenal world. And treats it as a mere illusory projection of the mind. Having dismissed the world thus, he enters the State of Reality..."

A. Parthasarathy

What exactly is Borān kammaṭṭhāna? Borān kammaṭṭhāna refers to the ancient and former practices that are found in modern day Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, and have been hidden away from the public eye for centuries. These practices are based on various influences. Borān kammaṭṭhāna is a system and practice/sect of Theravada Buddhism that incorporates Hinduism (From the Khmer Empire), Mahayana Buddhism (From the Dali Kingdom, Mahayana Buddhism was the largest sect of Buddhism in mainland South-East Asia), Tai Animism (Formerly known as 'Sasana Phi', religion of the spirits), and Occult practices/Esoteric practices imported from either Hinduism, or Vajrayana. Borān kammaṭṭhāna is currently practiced in the small pockets of Thailand, such as Lanna region, and the south, Shan State (Burma), Laos, Sipsongpanna (Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China), as well as various regions and parts of Cambodia.

Borān kammaṭṭhāna has many possible origins, such as possible traces to Abhyagiri, Sri-Lanka, where monastics are known to have practiced Vajrayana Buddhism. Ari Buddhism is another possible origin, Ari Buddhism was an Esoteric Sect, a part of Vajrayana, which died out after the kingdom of Pagan/Bagan accepted Theravada Buddhism. Ari Buddhism was a syncretic Esoteric tradition that contained Burmese Nat (Spirits) Worship [Note: Nat Worship is done similarly with Tai Animism/Sasana Phi], Naga Veneration, and Hindu Tantra from India. However, during the Khmer Empire, Esoteric/Vajrayana Buddhism was already present in the Khmer Empire, which stretched from modern day Cambodia, Laos, and parts of Thailand, stopping around the Lanna region.

The key points of Kaula tradition


•The five objects of the senses are the cosmos in expansion.
•The undivided Absolute is the Creator.
Ignorance is identical to knowledge.
•Lord Ishvara is the cosmos.
•The eternal is identical to the ephemeral.
•The absence of dharma (righteousness) is dharma.
•The five links form the essence of true knowing.
•Of all the senses, the eye is king!
•In your behavior do the opposite to what the norms dictate but remain in consciousness.
•Freedom is not to be found in knowledge.
•Don’t make distinctions.
•Don’t speak of things with pashus (limited beings).
•Give up pride.
•The Guru is unity.
•Do not condemn other practices.
•Take no vow.
•Impose no restriction on yourself.
•Limiting yourself does not lead to freedom.
•Practice innerly.
•This is freedom.
•May the Kaula path triumph!

"Usually we equate suffering with feeling, but feeling is not suffering. It is the grasping of desire that is suffering. Desire does not cause suffering; the cause of suffering is the grasping of desire. This statement is for reflection and contemplation in terms of your individual experience.

When you really see the origin of suffering, you realise that the problem is the grasping of desire not the desire itself.

Grasping means being deluded by it, thinking it’s really ‘me’ and ‘mine’: ‘These desires are me and there is something wrong with me for having them’; or, ‘I don’t like the way I am now. I have to become something else’; or, ‘I have to get rid of something before I can become what I want to be.’ All this is desire. So you listen to it with bare attention, not saying it’s good or bad, but merely recognising it for what it is."

Ajahn Sumedho

"If we contemplate desires and listen to them, we are actually no longer attaching to them; we are just allowing them to be the way they are. Then we come to the realisation that the origin of suffering, desire, can be laid aside and let go of.

How do you let go of things? This means you leave them as they are; it does not mean you annihilate them or throw them away. It is more like setting down and letting them be.

Through the practice of letting go we realise that there is the origin of suffering, which is the attachment to desire, and we realise that we should let go of these three kinds of desire. Then we realise that we have let go of these desires; there is no longer any attachment to them.

You can apply this insight into ‘letting go’ to the desire for sense pleasures. Maybe you want to have a lot of fun. How would you lay aside that desire without any aversion? Simply recognise the desire without judging it. You can contemplate wanting to get rid of it — because you feel guilty about having such a foolish desire — but just lay it aside. Then, when you see it as it is, recognising that it’s just desire, you are no longer attached to it.

So the way is always working with the moments of daily life. When you are feeling depressed and negative, just the moment that you refuse to indulge in that feeling is an enlightenment experience. When you see that, you need not sink into the sea of depression and despair and wallow in it. You can actually stop by learning not to give things a second thought."

Ajahn Sumedho

"Death of the mind is despair; depression is a kind of death experience of the mind. Just as the body dies a physical death, the mind dies. Mental states and mental conditions die; we call it despair, boredom, depression and anguish.

Whenever we attach, if we’re experiencing boredom, despair, anguish and sorrow, we tend to seek some other mortal condition that’s arising. As an example, you feel despair and you think, ‘I want a piece of chocolate cake.’ Off you go! For a moment you can absorb into the sweet, delicious, chocolate flavour of that piece of cake. At that moment, there’s becoming — you’ve actually become the sweet, delicious, chocolate flavour! But you can’t hold on to that very long.

You swallow and what’s left! Then you have to go on to do something else. This is ‘becoming’.

We are blinded, caught in this becoming process on the sensual plane. But through knowing desire without judging the beauty or ugliness of the sensual plane, we come to see desire as it is. There’s knowing."

Ajahn Sumedho

Yidams have both male and female forms. The male wrathful yidam is known as heruka which means “blood drinker,” he who drinks the blood of ego. The female wrathful yidam is called a dakini. The dakinis are tricky and playful. The male and female of the peaceful yidams are known as bhagavat and bhagavati meaning “glorious one.”

The male figures signify awakened energy, skillful means, bliss. The female aspect is compassion, emptiness, and intellect (which, as the emptying of confusion, is passive rather than active). The emptiness signifies fundamental accommodation and also ultimate fertility in the sense that emptiness is the mother of form. Through union with the heruka, the dakini can give birth to enlightenment. The dakinis in general reinforce the nature of their consorts and the bhagavati has the role of asking the bhagavat on behalf of all sentient beings to proclaim the teachings.

In general the union of the male and female aspects, known as the yab-yum (“father-mother”) form, is a symbol that skillful action is impossible without compassion, that energy cannot be effective without intellect, and that bliss is impossible without emptiness. This symbolism denotes the interaction of these elements as aspects of enlightenment, rather than on the ordinary confused level of indulgence in passion and aggression.

— Chögyam Trungpa, The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche: Volume 7