Yantra
is a mystical diagram, mainly from the Tantric traditions of the Indian
religions. They are used for the worship of deities in temples or at home; as
an aid in meditation; used for the benefits given by their supposed occult
powers based on Hindu astrology and tantric texts. They are also used for
adornment of temple floors, due mainly to their aesthetic and symmetric
qualities. Specific yantras are traditionally associated with specific
deities. A mantra is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word
or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit believed by practitioners to have
religious, magical or spiritual powers in Hinduism. Some mantras have a
syntactic structure and literal meaning, while others do not.Tantras
("Looms" or "Weavings") refers to numerous and varied
scriptures pertaining to any of several esoteric traditions rooted in Hindu
and Buddhist philosophy. The religious culture of the Tantras is essentially
Hindu, and Buddhist Tantric material can be shown to have been derived from
Hindu sources. And although Hindu and Buddhist Tantra have many similarities
from the outside, they do have some clear distinctions. The rest of this
article deals with Hindu Tantra. Buddhist Tantras are described in the article
on Buddhist Tantras. this book consists all of them. |