Tantra

Tantrika

Tantrika, or tantra, as it is more commonly known, is both a practice and a philosphy.
Unfortunately in recent years, the traditional tantra, has lost its meaning in both the Western world and the East where it originated.
In India it has evolved through thousands of years of dedicated thought and practice by many of Indians foremost acharya's and scholars, but is now mostly thought of as dark spells and black magic.

In the West, it is nearly always associated, with a catalogue of different sexual positions or sexual enlightenment.
Both are contained in the school of Tantra but are far from the philosophy and the practice of traditional Tantrika.

Red Hat, Black Hat tantra:

Tantrik practice has been split and divided into many schools or cults but in general has been spoken of as 'Right Hand' (dakshinachara) and 'Left Hand
Tantra' or 'Red hat' and 'Black hat tantra'.the so called "Black hat" tantra embraces the idea reaching enlightenment by free expression with awareness, studied experimentation, as opposed to the more conservative "Right Hand" paths where disipline, abstainment and suppression are the tools more commonly used for spiritual growth.

the Purpose of Tantra:

Whatever, school of tantra, the goal is the same, the merging of the Universal Self with the individual ego consciousness so that all that remains is Pure Consciousness.
One path renounces all doctrines and rituals and by non-supression yoked (yoga) with awareness to reach the state of perfect spontaneity (sahaja).
the other through vigorous sacrifices and spiritual sadhana comes the realisation of the oneness of all things and the elimination of the ego self.(aparoksha)