About 15 months ago I broke from Theravada Buddhism and engaged Tantra. At that time you may remember me giving a lot of "frank and honest opinions" and engaging in a lot of bridge burning. The anger has ebbed, the opinions have not.
I have been writing a book on Tantra using Metta as a centrepiece of the practice. Perhaps because it is what I am most familiar with, I have decided to use Theravadin teachings and meditations in this Tantra. Actually it's more of a porridge of traditions and teachings with Avalokiteshvara - Kwan Yin, Sacred Sex and Yoga as well as what could be called The Cult of the Physical being very much central to the Tantra.
Whatever labels we may want to use, I have re-examined what I was so angry with. The teachings are valid. The ego's and politics of Theravada culture are not. My basic gripe with the teachings remain....they don't go far enough. There is an entire aspect of the practitioner that is wilfully ignored in traditional Theravada. There is a refusal to accept that a heart attack or Type 2 diabetes is going to put a serious kink in your ability to practice.
Perhaps because in Australia the teaching is dominated by celibate monastics family life is devalued as an avenue of Dhamma. Not unlike my little boy deciding he doesn't like asparagas when he's never tried it. Those most dismissive of family life as Dharma are those with the least experience of it.
Once I re-read the teachings on meditation in Theravada with a years break from the bullshit I saw much that is valid. I believe that all the elements in the Tantra Dharma I practice and teach are compatible with and workable within a Theravadin context.
What I will NEVER return to is the real world groups with their penchant for politics. What I will be doing is pursuing and developing Theravada Tantra.
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