The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c9.s2.1

c9.s2.1

The Tāntrics of ancient India were formidable optimists. They intuitively realised that though this universe is composed of matter and spirit, it is the spirit which always dominates over matter, and is undoubtedly more powerful than the latter. There were several schools of thought in ancient India which took it for granted that spirit was supreme and that this spirit should be developed in order that power may be gained. Amongst these schools the Yoga and Tantra were preeminently the most influential and popular. The followers of these schools, particularly the latter, wanted to achieve through spiritual or psychic power everything that could be achieved in the material sphere. To-day for quick travel the material world presents to us railways, aeroplanes and steamers, but the Tāntrics claimed that by spiritual culture weight of the body can be so reduced that it can fly over space to any distance within the shortest possible time. To-day for information about kinsmen in distant lands people send letters, wires and cables, but the Tāntrics claim that by intense meditation alone they can visualize what is happening in other parts of the world, either by a projection of the mind or by mentally travelling the distance in a few seconds. For conversing with a friend at a long distance the material world provides telephones and wireless instruments but the Tāntrics claim that by psychic exercises they can hear anything from any distance, even the voice of gods and other invisible beings in the firmament. When a man suffers from disease the material world provides doctors, medicines, injections and so forth, but to a Tāntric these are unnecssary. By developing psychic resources of the mind he can cure by a mere glance, or touch or by recitation of Mantras. These extraordinary powers of the mind are called Siddhis.