Tantric Psychology

trauma and healing

I was at the Sydney Opera House a couple of weeks ago. It was not the usual Opera House crowd: I was surrounded by a sea of dark T-shirts decorated with the spiky indecipherable fonts of death metal bands. We were there to see the Swedish death metal band Opeth.

We found ourselves somewhere to sit and eat, just next to a young man with long red hair that framed his face. I noticed that his face was trembling and his eyes were filled with tears. His feet, clad in black and white Converse shoes, were twisting together like mating snakes.

I asked him if there was anything he needed. He said “No it’s OK, just anxiety.”

It made me wonder what kind of trauma this young man had experienced to produce this kind of extreme anxiety.

And then I put my philosopher’s hat on. Many philosophers and philosophies find themselves deeply interested in how people think and feel, and what can be done about it.

The concept of Samskara

Last post I talked about the Tantric idea of vikalpas - thought constructs o…