Editing Tantra (section)

=== Yoga, mantra, meditation===
[[File:Anonymous_-_Shiva_enraged_by_Parvati's_interruption_of_his_meditation_-_2019.146_-_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art.jpg|thumb|A meditating Shiva is visited by Parvati]]
Tantric yoga is first and foremost an embodied practice, which is seen as having a divine esoteric structure. As noted by Padoux, tantric yoga makes use of a "mystic physiology" which includes various psychosomatic elements known as the [[subtle body]]. This imaginary inner structure includes [[chakras]] ("wheels"), [[Nadi (yoga)|nadi]]s ("channels"), and energies (like Kundalini, Chandali, different pranas and vital winds, etc.). The tantric body is also held to be a microcosmic reflection of the universe, and is thus seen as containing gods and goddesses.{{sfnp|Padoux|2017|pp=73-75}} According to Padoux, the "internalized image of the yogic body" is a fundamental element for nearly all meditative and tantric ritual practices.{{sfnp|Padoux|2017|p=75}}

The use of [[mantra]]s is one of the most common and widespread elements of tantric practice. They are used in rituals as well as during various meditative and yogic practices. Mantra recitation ([[japa]]) is often practiced along with [[Nyasa (ritual)|nyasa]] ("depositing" the mantra), [[mudra]]s ("seals", i.e. hand gestures) and complex visualizations involving divine symbols, mandalas and deities. Nyasa involves touching various parts of the body while reciting mantra, which is thought to connect the deity with the yogis body and transform the body into that of the deity.{{sfnp|Padoux|2017|pp=76-77, 80}}

Mantras are also often visualized as being located within the yogi's body as part of tantric meditations. For example, in the "Yogini Heart" tantra, a [[Shri Vidya|Śrī Vidyā]] text, the yogi is instructed to imagine the five syllables (HA SA KA LA HRIM) of the deity's mantra in the [[muladhara]] chakra. The next set of five syllables (HA SA KA HA LA HRIM) is visualized in the heart chakra and the third cluster (SA KA LA HRIM) in the cakra between the eyebrows. The yogi is further instructed to lengthen the enunciation of the M sound at the end of the HRIM syllable, a practice called nada (phonic vibration). This practice goes through various increasingly subtle stages until it dissolves into the silence of the Absolute.{{sfnp|Padoux|2017|p=78}}

Another common element found in tantric yoga is the use of visionary [[meditation]]s in which tantrikas focus on a vision or image of the deity (or deities), and in some cases imagine themselves as being the deity and their own body as the body of the deity.{{sfnp|Cavendish|1980|p= }} The practitioner may use [[Mental image|visualizations]], identifying with a deity to the degree that the aspirant becomes the ''[[Ishta-deva]]'' (or [[Yidam|meditational deity]]). In other meditations, the deities are visualized as being inside the tantrika's body. For example, in Abhinavagupta's ''[[Tantraloka]]'' (chapter 15), the Trika trinity of goddesses (Parā, Parāparā, and Aparā) are visualized on the ends of the three prongs of a trident (located above the head). The rest of the trident is imagined positioned along the central axis of the yogi's body, with the blazing corpse of Shiva visualized in the head.{{sfnp|Padoux|2017|pp=77-79}}