The Buddhist idea of ‘enlightenment’ as ‘becoming
aware of’ or ‘awakening’ to this Absolute Emptiness replaced
the Hindu Tantric aim of experiencing this apparent
‘emptiness’ as the pure space (Akasha) and light (Prakasha)
of an Absolute Awareness - one distinct from each and every
thing we are or could be aware of. In this way the whole
notion of En-Lightenment was divorced from the Light of
Awareness associated with Shiva and with all those who shine
with that Light – ‘shining ones’ being the root Sanskrit
meaning of Devas or ‘gods’. Buddhist spiritual a-theism then,
replaced not just religious monotheism, polytheism,
pantheism and ‘panentheism’ (the immanence of God in all
things) but also Hindu Shaivist and Tantric ‘nootheism’ –
the recognition that Awareness absolute and unbounded
(Greek noos) is the Divine, personified as Lord Shiva. As a
result the defining Buddhist principle of ‘Awakening’
(Bodhi) replaced the Tantric principle of Awareness (Chit).
Hence all talk of ‘Buddhist Tantra’ is inherently misleading.
For all the truly ‘Tantric’ elements of Buddhism derive
from ‘Hindu’ Tantrism and not from Buddhism as such –
from the religious principle and practice of ‘re-linking’ to
an ultimate and divine awareness and not from the secular
principle and practice of seeking an ultimate state of human
awakening or enlightenment.
How then can each of us actually begin to experience
the reality of the Divine as Awareness? Normally we think
of and feel our awareness as something contained within