On the connection of Tantra with Black magic

Note: this text is extracted from Book XII, chapter 71

“Then she smeared the front of the sacrificial platform with blood and sandalwood, and painted on it with yellow paint a lotus having eight leaves, and on its pericarp she traced with crushed mango a representation of the demon of fever, with three feet and three mouths, and with a handful of ashes by way of weapon; and she represented on the leaves the fever’s attendant imps in proper form, and summoned them with a spell which she knew. And then she wished to make an offering to them, preparatory to bathing, with human flesh, as I said before, so she said to Aśokakarī: ‘Now, my friend, prostrate yourself flat on the earth before the god, for thus you will obtain prosperous fortune’”

Such black magic conjurations are doubtless connected with some of the Hindu and Buddhist Śāstras, called Tantras. In a note at this point Tawney speaks of “The debased form of Buddhism found throughout this work” as being “no doubt the Tantra-system introduced by Asanga in the sixth century of our era.” This statement is very misleading and could not possibly have any justification. In the first place we cannot speak of a “Tantra-system”—the phrase is meaningless. There are many schools of Āgama to which the Tantras belong. But the material we have does not allow of definite historical conclusions, and any confident statements are as jet impossible. How can any decision be reached before the materials are known? In the West for years it has been the custom for scholars to establish a close connection between so-called “Tantrism” and the worse examples of Hindu and Buddhist paganism—black magic, left-handed sex worship and every kind of excess imaginable.

So far as such practices are not to be found in Buddhism outside the Rgyud (Tantra), they are correct, but Tantra covers a large field, and one as yet but little explored. In the Rgyud are texts solely concerned with the building of stūpas, the consecration of idols, the stotras or hymns, and daily offerings, etc. Sir John Woodroffe, perhaps the greatest European authority on these works in question, would see in them “the repository of a high philosophic doctrine, and of means whereby its truth may through bodily, psychic and spiritual development be realised.”

Yet the leading idea in the Śaivite type of Tantras—ovinia sancta sanctis—is a dangerous one, and has led to most disastrous consequences. Without going into further detail, I would refer readers to the works of Sir John Woodroffe, published under the nom de plume of Arthur Avalon. These include: Tantra of the Great Liberation (Mahānirvāṇa Tantra), 1913; Hymns to the Goddess, 1913; Principles of Tantra (Tantra-tattva), 1914-1916, and Shakti and Shākta, second edition, London and Madras, 1922. See also the authoritative article by L. de la Vallée Poussin, “Tantrism (Buddhist),” Hastings’ Ency. Rel. Eth., vol. xii, pp. 193-197.—n.m.p.