"The Tantrik pictures this book illustrates were also meant ultimately to be used, not just looked at. They are undeniably impressive; but that is not all. They are made expressly to stimulate a special kind of mental activity, and to evoke psychosomatic forces. Used in rituals which include yoga, offerings, meditation and sexual intercourse, they can change a person completely, providing him with a new basis for his life. At first, all these procedures need to be carried through in the most basic fact; for only in this way can they displace the banal everyday reality which presses so forcibly on people`s lives. Later, when a Tantrika reaches a high level of achievement after many long years of effort and assimilation, the pictures may be visualized and carried out subjectively, without any risk of their collapsing into fantasy. For Tantra has no dealings with fantasy. What it describes and maps is a world of realities, a world which can only be visited by following the maps. It is there to be found; but someone who has not visited it can have no idea of what it is like. For there is no way of examining it from the outside. It is what we are-although we don`t usually realize the fact-and we can never step out of it to take an analytical view. Tantra, in fact, plunges one back into the roots of one`s own identity, not just by discussing social roles and interpersonal communication, and not by offering the kind of clear-cut or comforting answers given by the dogmatic theology of straight religions. Tantra says `If you do these things which Tantrikas have discovered, you will find yourself in a position to experience what the truth is about yourself and your world, as directly as you can experience the street.` Needless to say, to do those things, to get into the position from which you can experience the truth, involves a total change of personality. This takes every kind of effort - physical, sexual, mental, moral; and most are just the kinds of effort that nothing in Western education or tradition prepares one for. Tantra calls on energies in the human body and its world which most people usually dissipate in their ultimately pointless exertions and `recreations`. But, most important of all, Tantra positively cultivates and bases itself on what most people dismiss as the pleasures of life.... " -- from the Introduction Tantra has been defined as a `mystical philosophy` and as an unorthodox branch of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. It has also been described as an occult technique concerned primarily with polarity and sexual practices. Although each of these definitions contains an element of truth, none of them is complete. While Tantra has mystical, philosophical, and religious aspects, it is, above all, a technique of action -- a path of physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines incorporating meditation, yoga, and sacramental worship. Its sole purpose is the transformation or spiritual rebirth of the individual into a new existence and an enlightened state of consciousness. In Tantra: The Way of Action, francis King provides a complete theoretical and practical guide to the Tantric path of liberation. Topics covered include esoteric physiology, Qabalism, pleasure and pain, power and passivity, right-hand and left- hand Tantra, and the arousal of the Kundalini serpent power. following the spirit rather than the letter of the tradition, King maintains that Tantric techniques are universal processes. As such, they transcend the limitations of specific faith or dogma and are adaptable to Western culture and lifestyle. A highly regarded authority on magic, mysticism, and religion, francis King offers a view of Tantra that is at once contemporary, scholarly, and accessible to the Western reader. He is the author of Techniques of High Magic, as well as several other works on mysticism and ritual. Philip S. Rawson has published several books on eastern art and has contributed articles to numerous journals. He has served as UNESCO expert on museology in India and has organized a number of exhibitions on Indian art in Britain. Formerly Dean of the School of Art and Design at Goldsmiths` College, London, he is now retired. Among his previous appointments he has been Senior Tutor at the Royal College of Art, London, Keeper of the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology in the University of Durham and Assistant Keeper of the Department of Eastern Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.